"I hate to add to your inbox, but am confident you will have
a good strategy for ensuring that this one doesn't hang around any longer than
needed! I don't send a significant number of emails, or think that I
receive particularly many. However, as we speak I have 1,630 in my inbox,
74 of which are unread... I recognise that a large proportion of my time is rendered
unproductive by trying to keep the feeling of being swamped by the admin at
bay. The fact that I'm not great at seeking help (or being decisive!) allows
this to persist and perpetuate! Any thoughts would be great - my head hurts!!"
What a common cry for help this is. Here's a simple response.
- Create a new email folder called 'Dying emails' and put everything from your inbox in it that is more than two months old. Leave them alone for the moment.
- Go back to your Inbox. You're probably already feeling a bit better!
- Go through the remaining emails, and deal with those that can be answered in less than two minutes each. Be strict with yourself. You won't of course be doing this all at once, but over a period of some days or even weeks.
- You've still got some emails left in your Inbox. Put them in a number of new email folders [mine include Teaching, Prayer, Admin, Simeon Centre...].
- Go through your new folders one by one and flag those emails that are urgent. Deal with those before you attend to less important ones.
- By now, your Inbox is relatively empty. As new emails come in,
- deal with the two-minute ones briskly.
- flag important ones and move them to the other folders. Mark them also as unread and you will see a number by the folder indicating that you have work to be done in that folder.
- Finally for now, create a final new folder called 'Pending' and put in it emails you don't know what to do with. Look at Pending no more than once a week.
You've still got 1200 emails in Dying emails. Over time, delete them when they are dead, or refile them into the other folders as work needing to be done. But you do need to be brutal, and the first step of moving them out of your Inbox will declutter your spirits.
