Email, How it Gets Away From You

Remember, email is MAIL it has the same rules as the stuff that comes in your mailbox. Just as you don’t have every advertising flyer you’ve received in the last five years and birthday card from aunt Mae. Why, because you’d be on Hoarders! Why should your email be different?

I handle over 100 mails per day; my inboxes are nearly empty, why because I have rules! Just because email is sitting there on a screen doesn’t mean that you don’t have to manage it the same way you would any other communications. There are some easy to follow rules that most people who live and die by their inbox understand:

• Open your email everyday at the same time.
• Read everything in your inbox
• Touch the email only onceand decide what you’re going to do with it:
  • It’s  junk or Spam, be ruthless  and use the spam filter
  • It’s important, but not right now. Add the task to your calendar or to do list, with the important details, answer the mail, either delete it or save it to a folder
  • It requires immediate action, or an answer. Type the answer, and this is important, save the draft, and come back to it in 30 minutes to an hour to check if it’s complete, not too brusque or just plain mean. Rewrite it anyway and then send it. Delete the original. The answer will have the whole conversation in line.

I know there are some people who have had to declare an email bankruptcy. Now, that’s an inbox that has really gotten away from them, because they just couldn’t decide what to do with each item and just saved everything, and then couldn’t find things. Your inbox is not a filing cabinet!

Empty the sent folder between every month to 3 months depending on how busy the account is.

Empty your saved mail folders regularly and delete the folder when it’s no longer needed. Things changed, things get done or problems are addressed.

Inboxes should be on one page in one pane! When you have to go from page to page there is too much to deal with!

Personally, I have been using Thunderbird for years, why, it does everything Outlook or Live Mail can do, but with multiple accounts… and I do have more than one!

Another thing I’ve seen in the past few months is webmail accounts getting hacked and hijacked. Well standby for harping: have a strong password. You know, the piece is still up on the site, 8-12 letters, numbers and symbols! (Capital4-7724)