I no longer feel a burden of fear and guilt from contemplating a massive list of unprocessed messages.
Sunday, 10 August 2008
'Managing' email inbox
I used to work on the principle that my email inbox needed to be actively managed. Every message should (ideally at least) be read once then either replied to, filed or deleted. As volumes increased, and I used the Blackberry more and more for email - on which, with my set-up, I can't file - this process became too difficult. Now I set the Blackberry to delete all emails over 15 days old (on handheld and mailbox). The idea is that if the email matters, I'll attend to it. If it doesn't, it dies a natural death.
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2 comments:
An excellent tip on handling email overload! There's a key here... that it's not the tool (Blackberry, filters, whatever) that's the issue, but your own willingness to face reality: email that's older than 15 days simply isn't going to be dealt with, so get rid of it.
It's the nagging, quiet psychological force of "but what if I'm deleting something IMPORTANT...?" that can make this so hard to do.
Your willpower is admirable!
Not sure about willpower, Stever. Laziness, more like! But I agree with your other points.
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