3 easy ways to manage your email

Managing your inbox can sometimes feel like a never-ending task. You get caught up one day and the next day you feel behind again.

With the start of a new school year, it is the perfect time for creating a new email management and filing system. Here are three simple tips you can start using today (hopefully) to help you manage your email.

1. Schedule time
We live by our schedules: We schedule meetings, schedule due dates, schedule personal time. So why not schedule time to deal with email?

Schedule a block of time each day to process email. To make this time as productive as possible, don't allow yourself to be distracted or interrupted. Among other things, this means that you do not make phone calls or accept them. After all, that's what voicemail is for, right?

2. Use the Four D's (adapted from microsoft.com)
A. Delete it. Don't need it? Get rid of it!

B. Do it (if it takes less than two minutes). If you can't delete the email messages, ask yourself, "What specific action do I need to take?" and "Can I do it in less than two minutes?" If you can, just do it.

C. Delegate it. If you can't delete it or do it in two minutes or less, can you forward the email to an appropriate team member who can take care of the task?

D. Defer it. If you can't delete it, do it in less than two minutes or delegate it, then the action required is something only you can accomplish and will take more than two minutes. Because this is your dedicated email processing time, you need to defer it and deal with it after you are done processing your email.

3. Folders are your friend
Scrolling through the long list of emails in your inbox can feel overwhelming and unfocused. To help you focus, set up a series of folders. Start with a main folder and title it for the current school year (i.e. 2011-12).

From there, create subfolders with broad topic names like Negotiations, Trainings, Professional Development, Member Rights, etc. Then in each of those subfolders, create additional folders that will allow you to file/archive emails by specific topics. A folder system may look something like this:

2011-12

Member Rights

Black Duck Elem

John Doe
Prep Time

Grey Goose HS

Duty Time
Overload
Duty-Free Lunch

Negotiations

Proposals
Meeting Dates
Organizing Activity

September 26, 2011