Getting on Top of E-mail
I was inspired by Merlin Mann’s short slot on Leo Laporte’s radio show when he suggested you could sort your life out by following a few basic Email productivity tips. I have tried out some of Merlin’s advice and setup some of my own systems. Now I no longer feel overwhelmed by a mountain of unanswered E-mails. This is what I did:
- I sorted through all old E-mails and filed them into folders or deleted them.
Now my inbox only contains recently received E-mails. Merlin’s advice is act on them quickly and archive them in a folder or delete them. You should always aim to have a zero inbox. - I consolidated all my E-mail accounts into a single account.
Google Mail is a good tool for this, because it allows you to send and receive messages from multiple E-mail accounts. I used my Google Mail or G-Mail account to consolidate my school and two other personal E-mail accounts. Now I can handle all my messaging needs from one single web interface. I always keep Google Mail open in one of my Firefox browser tabs. Google Mail has a quick reply facility and it can open Office documents. - I make use of RSS feeds to display new mails.
Google Mail provides RSS feeds so I can see new messages as they appear in my browser. - I keep E-mail abrupt and short by making maximum use of the subject field to write the whole message if possible. Messages can be abbreviated with EOM for end of message.
Already those four steps have made a big difference to my day. The mountains of E-mail seem less daunting.
Links:
43folders.com