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Jul30
Managing That Inbox
There was a time when the worst of our organizational tasks was filing those eternal piles of paperwork.  That time is over now.  Yeah, we don't need no stinkin' papers to file; we have folders in our computers now.  And now we have our mailboxes overflowing with all manner of really, really good stuff that we must save -- as soon as we have the time to make another folder.  No, wait!  First we need to wade through that overflowing mailbox.

Today was an inbox-cleaning kind of day for me and it was the chore we all know it can be.  After several hours of doing it the old fashioned way, I remembered that, 

last April at eSoup, Sharon Sarmiento wrote an in-depth series to help us zero those inboxes.  You're right that "zero" doesn't feel like a realistic number, but definitely can be.

"Once we get it zeroed out, the goal is to zero it out each day so it never gets to the point where it's a big hairy beast that you're scared to look at." --Sharon Sarmiento, Email Ninja Moves: Zeroing out your inbox, eSoup

After you've read Part 1, you might as well go for the next two, Email Ninja Moves: Filters to the rescue! and Email Ninja Moves: Challenging Email Expectations.  

Since I'm still four pages away from zero, there's no doubt that I need to re-read them.  But, on the bright side, here's a little gem I managed to unearth today.

 

 

Cartoon: emailed from my mom 


4 Comments/Trackbacks




You are right about taking time to clear our inbox. It's like any task which we need to break into smaller pieces in order to make it look easier.

That's probably the big key, Pamela -- breaking it into smaller pieces. The next biggest key would probably be to keep it cleared. I keep telling myself I won't let things accumulate again; that's another things that's working, but in very, very small pieces.

True. If we don't make the necessary actions, it'll only keep on pilling up, especially if we just think about doing it. We need to plan a routine task of clearing our inbox to avoid dealing with huge numbers.

Howie, if only thinking would make it so :)

Today I managed to whittle it down to two pages. By doing a little every day, pretty soon those huge numbers aren't an issue. My next step is exactly what you said: make it a routine task.

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