I’m on several boards and committees, all of which generate a lot of email that shouldn’t clog up my work email. I use gmail forwarding with filters to put them all into one inbox, so I only have 3 places to check: my old hotmail acct that I use to sign up for things I don’t need to see right away; 1 gmail inbox that shows everything for 4 accts w/most emails prelabeled; and Outlook for work.

I use folders aggressively in my Outlook account. Another little trick that I find not everyone knows is that you can drag an Outlook email onto the calendar or task list. It creates the new appointment or task with the body of the email (including the header info) in the note space. I still have to file the original email in the relevant folder, but I’ve created the action item pretty quickly.

A really radical thing I started doing a few months ago: I call people. On the phone.

I realized that I was using email for communications that really don’t belong in that space.

Prime example: setting meetings or coffee dates with just one or two people. The reply-all death spiral proposing different times, days and locations is crazy-making.

Reply-all is good for a lot of excess in-box filler in general. I try to be selective in how many people get cc’d in the first place, and I’ll prune the list (& note in the email that I’ve done so and why) if it seems to make sense.

Another cue that it’s time to get out of the email space is the second long email on a complicated or thorny topic that has generated a long reply from someone else.

If I find myself typing an email that tries to explain, justify, defend, or convince at length, generally I stop. None of those efforts will really succeed in that communications space, and they’re more apt to exacerbate than to solve the root problem. It’s probably time to walk down the hall or pick up the phone.

These are qualitative/content issues, but they end up feeding quantity as well, at least in my in-box.

@BarbChamberlain

Barb Chamberlain’s last blog post..Family Labels: Fifth Chinese Daughter, Uninteresting Middle Daughter, Favorite Second Daughter

Cheers,
Jared / AwayFind

Jared Goralnick’s last blog post..“The company you keep” part 2: forcing success upon yourself