Whether your email inbox is cluttered with spam or work-related email, the following techniques can help you gain control of your wild inbox.
1. Move task-oriented email messages out of your inbox if they will take longer than five minutes to handle. Drag each message to your Task folder and change the subject name, so you’ll know its topic at a glance. Then, delete it from your inbox so that all your to-do’s are grouped in one place.
2. Drag email to your Calendar to schedule time for yourself to work on it. Estimate how much time the task will take, then drop it into your schedule.
3. “Add a reminder” when you use a follow-up flag, and the message text will turn red when it’s overdue. That makes it easy to see pressing tasks at a glance. Once you’ve completed the task, manually mark it “complete.”
4. Develop a color scheme for flags, using two or three different colors. You might designate blue for anything to do with your boss and red for a high-priority project. Even if your inbox is full, you’ll be able to spot the most important items.
Inspired by a recent presentation given by Allison Muzal, President/Owner of SBI Financial Services, Inc. dba Bookkeeping Express. at the West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs Although this is entry is for Outlook users, you can certainly use the same tactics in Gmail. Also check out the recent blog entry by WSWE member Brooke Randazzo Eggert, Owner / Senior Designer of r3mg::creative boutique where she really explains the different Quadrant’s of Allison’s presentation.