It is a simple fact that most of us work better in clean and organized situations. That doesn’t mean that you can’t work with a little clutter on your desk, but I bet you’d feel better and work better if it was cleaned up spik and span. 🙂
BUT what about organizing technology? It can still be a big problem, even if it is virtual. Let’s talk about your email inbox. Did you know that most people have hundreds of unopened emails at any given time? Yeah 100’s, that’s a bunch!! If you are one of these people, lets do a little virtual housecleaning on our inboxes today. It is easy to drown in the massive amounts of emails that people are pushing out there into a virtual mail room. Five quick tips today, giving you time to put them into action right away!
- Go through today only. In order to begin to get a handle on things, just read through what you received today. Only after you get through today, should you move on reading items from another day.
- Delete quickly if it is not useful to you today or in the next week, kick it to the curb! AND unsubscribe if it’s not useful like ever or if you can go and look it up again when you do need that information. 🙂 Maybe you looked at kayaks once ten years ago, but never purchased one…. you don’t need to be on the list from kayakersgonewild.com who sends you emails four times a week. 🙂 I use an online tool called Unroll.me – this is a free service and I’ve enjoyed it, but please check it out for yourself to see if you trust and like them. It has helped me control the clutter and mass unsubscribe and resubscribe as well.
- Respond quickly and if it requires more of a response than you have time for right now, even a quick reply is nice letting the other person know that you did get their message and it is not one of the 100s sitting unopened and forgotten in the world.
- File quickly. Make a folder for emails that you want to check out more details on or watch a video link, then move them to the folder to get them out of your inbox. Then once a week or so, review what is still in that folder and get rid of it if it is no longer useful.
- Set time out in your day for checking your emails. If you are checking your phone, computer and tablet every few minutes checking out emails, the already daunting task of keeping emails read and organized can only feel worse! But if you allow yourself specific set times during the day to check your email, you will likely have more focus at that time and be able to get through responses and deletions that much quicker.
Do you have any other tips that have made email chaos turn into email bliss? Please share below!! We will celebrate your suggestions.
Have an outstanding day!
Much success!!
Sara