getting control of emails every day….

[Irish10]

I get over 200 emails day. I’ve started using the ideas in a book called Total Workday Control and that seems to have helped. Has anyone else had an issue with managing emails and have you found good ways to deal with it?

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[Scattybird]

Delete them, if it’s important they will email back.

Are you a rugby fan Irish10?

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[Anonymous]

Agreed, use the delete key – people tend to copy others on their emails to keep them in the loop and it’s usually unnecessary. Better still, only look at email once a day (you have more control over your time) and use filters to get rid of most of them so you don’t spend too much time. Try getting up and talking to someone instead of communicating by email.

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[Anonymous]

In Nov ’11, I was diagnosed with ADD

I made a decision to move from self-employment back to the corporate world in order to work in a more structured environment.

It is doing the same type of work without having to manage all aspects of the business.

I am starting a new job and I don”t want to go into using old bad behaviours – and managing email is a big one

This topic has me thinking about how I will approach all of this. I would like to learn what other people are doing

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[kc5jck]

I have several email addresses. One just for business, one for personal, and one to give out when I know it will result in a lot of spam and junk mail. At least that’s the theory.

I would suggest that if you are starting a new job, set up an email account just for things related to that job.

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[Scattybird]

Ok since this is actually an important topic and to some extent my first reply was a little flippant.

I also have 2 email accounts, my work one and a personal one. My work one has a good spam filter so it’s important to set that up. When spam, or email that I class as rubbish even if not spam per se, comes in I can tell it to automatically put that sender into a junk folder and then I ignore it.

I get many work emails every day and try to check them in the morning and at times during the day when I need a break from other stuff.

If I only check them once a day then it takes too long to deal with them but obviously some days are worse than others and people often want an instant reply.

In the slot I allocate for emails I try to answer them but sometimes I can’t until I have more time so they go into a ‘to deal with’ folder. If they don’t then I forget about them. I also forget I have a ‘to deal with’ folder sometimes which is problematic.

The other thing is I have it set up so I can see the first line without opening it so that let’s me know if it’s worth opening and reading.

On days that I have to try and focus on something specific with a deadline, and when I know I will be easily sidetracked I use my ‘out of office’ auto reply saying that emails won’t be looked at for however long. I guess that might be tricky depending on your line manager etc.

I guess how much you can get the system to help you depends on what you use. I use Outlook at work.

I don’t need any of this for my personal account.

The biggest struggle is with myself in stopping myself from constantly checking them.

Actually I do have a second personal account that I used when I set up a facebook account and I have abandoned it because it’s full of ludicrous facebook notifications that I don’t care about and I need to get rid if facebook.

Get rid of any notification signals that tell you when an email comes in. Also only respond if you have to. Some emails are just to keep you in the loop and probably don’t even need to be read.

Please excuse typos – doing this on my ‘phone and screen is small.

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[Anonymous]

kc5jck, Scattybird,

Thank you both for the great suggestions.

I think a number of issues were addressed.

– minimize distractions

– increase your productivity

– don”t waste work time

– prioritize

I use Outlook as well for work. I find Outlook 2010 is too busy and too many bells and whistles

Outlook 2007 works better for me.

It is a double edge sword because a lot of people want instant reply. I think you can set expectations

by clearly communicating and establishing boundaries

At work I have problem saying ‘No”, I help everyone else and then procrastinate with my own work!!!!

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[kc5jck]

I kinda go with Scattybird’s first suggestion. Delete them, except I figure if it’s important, they will send me a letter… certified.

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[Anonymous]

LOL, kc.

I am trying out yet another task manager that I discovered on the internet. Free. Time waster, not time saver, since all I ever seem to do is enter tasks.This one has lots of bells & whistles – including a notebook, a timer, scheduler based on your timings (for an annual subscription fee), but I don’t think it’s helping me be more productive. I did get it to send me an email reminder to take my noon meds (which I had in my vest pocket this time).

I took a snow day on Thursday and actually watched the very long Russell Barkley youtube video. I am starting to agree with him, that no matter what tools & techniques you have read or practiced, they are utterly useless unless you can remember to use them AT THE TIME they are required. And meds are likely required to help you stay focused and increase the odds that you’ll read that to-do list (which needs to be very short). If it’s truly a brain disorder, then that’s got to be a starting point. I’ve read countless management books over the years and taken training courses. I know what to do, I can think about it beforehand, and I can think about it afterwards, but using the techniques at the right time and place are extremely elusive, as Barkley says.

I think I’ll go burn some of my time management books and take a pill 👿

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[kc5jck]

No-dope, I watched Barkley multiple times. At first, I thought the “they know what to do, but they can’t do what they know” might be true for some people, but not for me… well maybe on some things … well maybe on a few others as well, … but surely … well OK even if I’m not sure I believe it, it certainly seems to be true. But there are some things that I can do… sometimes.

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[Anonymous]

1. Sort by sender and mass delete junk.

2. Sort by sender and move any of the “I would like to read it later” emails to a separate folder

3. Now that you removed the junk and the non-important messages now change your view and group your mail by conversation. I get 75 to 125 emails a day and a lot of them are replies to replies to replies.

Grouping by conversation serves a lot of good (a) I save time because I only need to open and read 1 email. (b) I can delete all the threaded emails that are already represented in the current one. (c) I get the full story befre firing off a reply. How many times have you either sent or received an email that was unnecessary had you read all you msgs before sending.

4. Send less and you will receive less. My company has an instant messaging app that I use frequently or I will just call the person.

5. Turn off all the notifications and beeping sounds so that you aren’t a constant slave to your mail. I flat out tell my coworkers and clients that I don’t check email religiously throughout the day and if they need my immediate attention that they need to call my office. This cuts back on a ton of ” oh yeah I forgot to ask you” emails because they either call me or send me an instant message.

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[Author]

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