In celebration of the end of the Clean Out Your Inbox Week, we are not just providing you one tip, but 10. The International Clean Out Your Inbox Week, always the fourth week in January, is a good time to cleanse, and these tips can remind us all!
1. Create e-folders to hold action items – avoid using your inbox as a “to do” list.
2. Rename or add to the subject line of received e-mails so that you can search them more effectively.
3. Return e-mail requests with phone calls.
4. Avoid the tendency to “work” newly received e-mails if they are less important than your current project.
5. Open your e-mail with the intention of sorting your new items, rather than “knocking the easy ones off”
6. Sort your e-mail in order from top to bottom or bottom to top – avoid scrolling
7. Copy only the people who REALLY need to see your message.
8. Use “if/then” verbiage. e.g. “Please e-mail me if you haven’t received the package” rather than “Did you receive the pkg?”
9. Turn off automatic send/receive and turn off all dings and flashes. Open your e-mail when it is right for YOU
10. Send less e-mail. The more e-mail you send, the more e-mail you’ll get!
If you like these tips, here is a link for a free chapter of “Inbox Detox.” There are many many more in “Inbox Detox and the Habit of Email Excellence.” Check it out as an eBook or paperback!
