Email Best Practices

How many emails are in your email inbox? I have had occasion to witness several other people's inboxes and have been shocked to see how many emails just SIT in the inbox!

How does an inbox that clogged up make you feel? How do you know if you're caught up? Are you guessing?

I keep my inbox at zero. An inbox is for emails that you haven't opened yet. Now, I do have an "action" folder that at any given time will have 20 or so emails that either I am not physically in a place where I can do what I need to do to answer it, or I am not in a position to take the time needed to answer it at the moment. I also keep thing in there like...an email for a meeting in a couple of days so I can easily find it.

If an email is something you are going to need to reference later, make an appropriate folder and put it in there. If it is something you could answer in less than 2 minutes, just answer it immediately. If it is something you need to take action on, either put it in an action folder or copy it into whatever your productivity system is.

http://www.43folders.com/izero

This is a really great resource. Take a look at it!