Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email?
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During the past week I have been purging my electronic clutter, old files and software no longer needed and specifically, my email. Mixing this with my other day to day chores has been a challenge.
Like most bloggers and entrepreneurs, I have quite a few email accounts set-up for various purposes. I set out to get all of them cleaned up by the end of 2009 but life, as often happens, got in the way.
The next thing I know the New Year had arrived and I had hardly started on this project, which was quite substantial.
I use Gmail for most of my business accounts because it’s free, easy to use, and you get tons of storage space (7.2 Gigs) for each account. Now you know how the email thing goes, you get so many during the course of the day that you find yourself cherry-picking the really high priority and important ones first, leaving the others to get back to a little later.
The fact that I had so many emails to get back to began to bother me and it had gotten to a point where I knew I had to do something. It is a new year and this was gnawing at me, so drastic action had to be taken.
So I rearranged my normal work schedule to spend the required hours upon hours each day to clear away this backlog from my inbox, my mind and my life. I can tell you that I am now so refreshed and ready to rock and roll for 2010 that I just had to write this post about the experience.
This may sound like a small thing but when you have multiple accounts that accumulate 20 to 40 emails daily, and each account has an inbox with numbers in the thousands, let’s be honest, this **** is out of hand.
This situation has caused me to add another goal for 2010, and that is to implement a highly efficient email management system to avoid recurrence.
My old system was to set aside blocks of time to keep the numbers manageable but obviously I flubbed at that along the way.
This is where you can help me out.
What systems or techniques do you find most effective for managing your email?
Yeah I know, no system will help me if I fail to read them in the first place, but the sheer numbers had overwhelmed my efforts.
If you would kindly leave me some suggestions in the comments section, it would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!
21 Comments
January 12th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Ah ha! Another Gmail user!
The way I get round the clutter is by using filters, having the messages routed STRAIGHT into those filters, then by having two other inboxes set up; one for starred messages, and one for unread messages.
It works for me as uncategorized items come straight into my inbox where I can deal with them (usually a smaller amount), and general emails go into their own categories and the unread inbox (where I can either read through categories or go through them en masse). May work for you, may not – that’s just my two cents
Also, you might want to consider unsubscribing from things if you’re getting overwhelmed with emails. If you find yourself deleting a lot of the same sort of email from the same place, its usually easier to unsub
January 12th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hi again Heather,
that is a great two-cents. I had only set up a couple of filters but need to do more. I don’t keep any subscriptions to crap or other spammy junk, that is the problem, there is a ton of valuable stuff flowing.
I do like your idea, thanks for you input.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
Heather Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 11:10 am
No problem
I suppose another way could be to move your subscriptions to a feed reader where possible (I like google reader for that)… This frees up your actual email, and still gives you access to the things you want to read.
Let me know how it goes if you decide to adopt any of these!
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Challenges; Are They Worth It? =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 11:19 am
Will keep you posted for sure.
I use iGoogle to capture a ton of my favorite sites, really nice interface there.
I am going to implement the filtering strategy for sure, before things begin to pile up again. LOL
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
Heather Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Hehe, good luck!
Word of warning; it’ll feel very odd having almost nothing in your inbox for a few days. Fun though
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Challenges; Are They Worth It? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
I’m also a Gmail user with about 2 accounts plus I have email accounts associated with my websites.
I go through each morning and immediately delete sales info, FYI stuff, etc. Then I will start opening the rest. If it is something important that I would like to read in depth or respond to then I flag it. I have also gotten in the habit to respond immediately to any emails from blog readers and clients as they are the lifeblood of my business and they come first after my family that is.
.-= Patty Reiser´s last blog ..Project 365: Day 12 =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Thanks Patty, I could not agree more on the responses to the readers (family is on a personal acct).
I sort of boxed myself in by allowing the inbox to grow too large.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
What I do is I just let it all lie there. It makes a huge impression on people walking by. “You have over 45,000 unread emails in your inbox?!?!?”
.-= Anne @ b6s.net´s last blog ..Gardening Forums for Sale =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Hello Anne,
LOL – I could never do that, it would drive me batty (not that I would have that far to go).
Seriously though, that is the reason I spent days straightening out what had accumulated. Much of what I get really is important, just need to be better at managing that level of messages.
Now if there were lots of ads, etc. i could just delete them and be done.
Thanks for visiting.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I can safely say I don’t have this issue as I don’t get that much email at this point, however the emails I do get I read them immediately, but first I check out the subject line and it determines whether the email gets zapped prior to being opened in the first place.
I can’t help much on this subject but I can tell you that marking spam accordingly from the start definitely helps with the filter process.
.-= Ms. Freeman ´s last blog ..Carry a Notebook Everywhere You Go =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Hi Ms. Freeman, how are you?
You may not get much email now but you will eventually.
Spam is no issue at all, Gmail catches all of that. I must (and will) do better this year to avoid that backlog.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
I get about 200 to 250 emails a day across three accounts – all on Google Apps (like GMail but with my own domains).
I access email four or five times a day, and simply work my way through what’s there until my inbox is empty.
I have a rule that I only ever handle an email once. If I can deal with it now, with a quick reply or by reading something, I do it now. If I can’t I just archive the mail and add a task to my task list (I use Remember the Milk).
.-= Mike CJ´s last blog ..How to launch your first digital product – Part Two =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Hey Mike,
thanks for your input. I have not tried Remember the milk, but will check it out.
I think some decent filtering and a task list like you have mentioned will go a long way toward managing the inbox better.
At this point, I have it all under control after a marathon clean-up, so I must install a good system now.
I like that handle it once approach. Will keep that in mind.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Totally agree with all the suggestions so far. Moving whatever is available in RSS out of email helped me greatly. Filters are amazing, especially if you receive lots of email from social networking. You can filter the emails from clients and those that bring in the money directly into their own folders so you see them right away. I love what Patty said about responding right away to people who comment on her blog.
I would also take a look at what kind of email you are getting. Is is from collaborators and maybe could be done in a different environment like Google Wave that keeps everything in one place outside of email? Is it customer service related? Are people asking questions? You can create canned responses or templates or even different sig files that answer those questions, instead of individually writing each answer. Posting FAQs may help cut down on the emails.
If you post what type of email you’re receiving, maybe we can brainstorm more solutions. Or you could always get a virtual assistant to help you
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Hi Rebecca and thanks so much for your response. I am mainly getting email from legitimate sources that a filtering system would help me with. I have just not taken the time to set up more than a couple of filters.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Labels & filters to throw most mails straight to archive, not inbox at all. Start with Lifehacker’s must have gmail filters: http://lifehacker.com/5167829/ten-must+have-gmail-filters-available-for-download – Also get Lifehacker’s “Better GMail 2″ for Firefox.
And then syndicating multiple accounts into one. I just use autolabeling (putting a label depending which account the mail actually came to). And I think there are some options (might be in the “Labs”) which allows you to view multiple accounts on one view, e.g. “fake Inboxes” for all the accounts.
So it’s actually very easy to get all the accounts to one, and at least cut the time you’re jumping between them. With proper labels and filters in place, it’s quite manageable. When you reply to an email, it can automatically set the sender based on the account the mail came to.
.-= Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..Blog Like an Expert in 31 Days =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Hey Antti,
sounds great. I will look into that filtering system at Lifehacker.
I use Firefox so that better Gmail 2 is definitely worth a look. I want to set something up right away to stay organized on that front.
I appreciate your help.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Hi Jimi,
Was having similar thoughts and Antti’s advice ( as usual)sounds like something well worth following
Cheers
Will
.-= Will´s last blog ..Beginner Blogger.com =-.
Jimi Jones Reply:
January 13th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Hey Will,
I wondered what the latest methods were for keeping this straight, since I allowed it to get out of hand.
I will be installing some of those filters today.
Thanks for visiting, we will see you soon.
.-= Jimi Jones´s last blog ..Purging My Clutter – Can you help me with my Email? =-.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:01 am
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January 17th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
well jimi as i think its really worth following.. thanks man i like ur content…