Managing Your Inbox

Merge all your email accounts into a single gmail account

You can setup all your various email accounts to forward their content to another account. Make that a special gmail account where all your email comes to. The reason is that gmail offers a number of useful tools (least of which is the power of the best search engine in the world) that will help manage your email more effectively.

This also gives you the benefit of being able to access your email from anywhere (it's all stored in the cloud). You can use either Google's web interface, or a dedicated app like Apple Mail (use the 10.7 or 10.8 one) or something like Postbox (http://www.postbox-inc.com/).

Gmail

Limit your incoming messages

• remove yourself from email lists (are you really reading them?)
• setup filters (if you're going to keep a list, make it automatically go into its own folder that won't distract you from important messages)
• open up alternative communication streams for the business (e.g., can clients contact the company via live chat, campfire, phone, or something else that could be fielded by an account manager instead of you?)

Use the Inbox Zero process

The idea is to keep your inbox empty by filtering your messages in four ways:

1. if it's a small quick reply that takes less than 2 minutes, do it now
2. if it takes longer than 2 minutes, put it in the "reply" folder and deal with it at a later time when you're ready to focus on it
3. if you're waiting for a response from a client on a message, put it in the "waiting" folder
4. if you're done with it, put it in "archive" (still searchable, but out of your way)
5. if it's not work related, put it in a different folder (like "email lists" or something)

Simplify your responses

Keep it short, keep it simple, only say what needs to be said. Merlin Mann has suggested that all emails should be clearly labelled as either

1. Providing Information (e.g., "Larry Tate will be in the office Monday at 10.")
2. Requesting Information (e.g., "Where did you put the 'Larry Tate' file?")
3. Requesting Action (e.g., "Will you call Larry Tate's admin to confirm our meeting on Monday?")

Writing Sensible Email Messages: http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/19/writing-sensible-email-messages

Schedule your email sessions and take control of your day

For example, this might be a regular work day:

9-11am: do your most productive work (might be from emails of yesterday)

11-11:30am: process emails (if you can't reply to all your emails by 11:30, get to them later, or have your assistant take care of them)

12:30-3:30pm: do work (might include work from email that you just processed)

4-4:30pm: process email again

4:30-4:45pm: manage your todo list and make plans for the tomorrow

5pm: gtfo!

References

Simple Guide to Managing Your Email: http://www.asianefficiency.com/email-management/simple-guide-to-managing-your-email/

10 Tips for Managing Email Effectively: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/10-tips-for-managing-email-effectively/

Inbox Zero: http://inboxzero.com/

SXSW Killed My Inbox Zero: Email Lessons From the Front Lines of Tech: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/03/15/sxsw-killed-my-inbox-zero-email-lessons-texas-sanebox/