If you are like many executives in today’s fast-paced, digitally interconnected world, you receive some overwhelming number of email each day. In 2004 it was estimated that the average worker sent 34 and received 99. In 2009 researches estimated that the average size of a persons inbox was nearly 3000 messages!
A few tips on managing that out of control beast:
Prioritize / Filter
– Color-code contacts – Outlook and other programs allow you to add colors or categories to your contact lists. When email comes in from those contacts, the subject line is the color of their “category”. I keep family one color, customers another, and vendors another. This allows me to quickly prioritize in what order to respond and allows me to visually sort through the messages.
– Use multiple accounts – Use a separate account for those things that might be optional, or lower priority like subscriptions to news sites, social media, blog feeds or even online purchases. Visit those when you have time for lower-priority tasks and reserve your primary address for those important messages
Touch them once
If you can, respond to the message, forward to someone else (delegate the task) and don’t come back to the message. Once you have responded, get it out of the Inbox. If you need to keep it, set up folders in the system to allow you to archive and find it later. If you don’t need to archive, use the delete button. Never look back at the message again. Keeping your inbox small will allow you to see everything in front of you that you still need to deal with and will feel much less overwhelming than the 3,000 items which are lurking there now.
Schedule Email time
Schedule time in your day to “DO EMAIL”. Having your email program running in the background means that every time a message comes in, you are prone to be distracted from whatever else you are working on. Find a routine that fits: Once an hour, Three times a day, whatever works for your email volume and your daily schedule.
I would love to hear any additional tips you might have for managing your inbox!
Authored by: Zack Clark, MBA
Zack is a Senior Consultant and one of the founding partners at Five Degrees Consulting. This is a blog we share between several of the Consultants at Five Degrees, guest authors and colleagues. We work with companies large and small on People and Organization strategies. Our work specializes in organizational development, leadership effectiveness and executive development. With a focus on working with leaders at all levels to create an intentional corporate culture, we help organizations increase employee engagement, energize working teams, develop critical leadership competencies and enhance strategic communications for more information about our services, please connect with us.