Ask the Readers: How Do You Deal With Email?

Prashant Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:17 pm

I’ve been Merlinized for the past one year. It makes me queasy to end the day without zero emails in the inbox.

Des Paroz Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:18 pm

I am very much a fan of a GTD-esque approach to managing email. I have both a personal (Gmail) and work (Lotus Notes) based email account, and try to keep the 2 separate.

Inboxes are zeroed at least daily. Right now its 11.15am, and both are at zero ;-)

I have an “@Waiting For” folder/label in both, and actively move both sent and receive emails for which I am awaiting a follow up into those.

In Lotus Notes, I have a “@Action” folder that I move things into. In Gmail, I use the “Star” functionality. Into both goes emails that require further action on my behalf.

Everything else gets filed into a folder/label(s) for reference, or deleted. Once filed, its archived out of the Inbox.

I gmail I minimise the number of labels. Apart from “@Waiting For”, I have an “@Archive” label. When accessing from a non-web browser interface (iPhone), I drop those files accordingly into that folder, which effectively archives them for me.

I can’t stress enough how cool, but daunting, it is to have a zeroed inbox. Cool because now you know whats on your plate. Daunting because you have to do something about it, and don’t have a cluttered inbox to use as an excuse for procrastination.

tim Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:19 pm

I think you only receive as much email as you invite. If you are overwhelmed you are inviting too much into your inbox.

I hear you say: “but I don’t invite email, people send it to me!”

I think of it this way. If I put my email address on my website, I am inviting email. If I put it on my business card, likewise. If I send email, I am inviting replies. If I let people know that I don’t need to be copied on certain types of messages, then I am inviting email. etc. etc.

The trick is to figure out what email is important for you to receive, and “invite” only that type of email by modifying your own actions and use of email accordingly. That’s the best way I know of to reduce the volume of email and therefore the processing time required of you.

I find that all the productivity tools/tips for dealing with volumes of email are just working on the fringe of the problem, not addressing the cause of the problem which is:

Too many “invitations” = too many emails = too much time required of you.

tim Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:23 pm

woops! should be :

“Unless I let people know that I don’t need to be copied on certain types of messages, then I am inviting email”

maijc Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:27 pm

i dont recieve much mails (5 per week), but im overwhelmed by my rss reader, i probably have 1000 post daily. What i do is i just read it as fast as posible, if i note something interesting, i open it, bookmark it, or just save it as a jpg (pearl crescent page saver basic for firefox), and read it later in my free time at work.

cheers

Sara Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:33 pm

Pick up the phone. By making one call, you may be able to eliminate five future back-and-forth emails. It’s not always true, but it’s true often enough to give it a try.

Christopher Palmer Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:41 pm

I’m with Des Paroz - GTD and empty inboxes at the end of the day (well, 90% of the days).

I use the standard GTD @action, @waitingfor, and @review tags in GMail, but I also archive pretty much all of my non-trivial, non-junk mail (that isn’t very GTD’ish, but GMail’s storage limits are generous and tags and search make it really easy to find old stuff). Every once in a while, I’ll clean out my non-GTD tag folders. I go through the @action and @waitingfor folders daily.

For my work e-mail, we’re stuck with Outlook and after using GMail tags, Outlook is very annoying. I tried using folders, but inevitably I wanted a message to be in two or three different folders. So I tried using folders and categories, but the category interface is pretty much unusable. I wound up buying an add-in called Taglocity that lets me manage things closer to GMail style - everything in my inbox gets done and deleted, deleted, or tagged and archived as quickly as possible. Taglocity lets you set up custom search folders for each tag and combination of tags. For “archiving”, I just dump everything in one of two personal folders in Outlook - one for work, and one for personal items (not many of those at work, but there are a few). Taglocity has its flaws, but its better than the native Outlook functionality (even Outlook 2007 which handles categories better).

I was in a meeting a few weeks ago and everyone was talking about how swamped they were by complaining about how many messages were in their inbox. I said, “My inbox stays empty.” Half of everyone in the room laughed and though I was lying, the other half figured that I either archived or ignored and deleted every message. It took them a while to be convinced that there was actually a rational way to process your inbox and still not miss, forget, or delete important messages.

Rachel Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:44 pm

For my work e-mail, I have to be able to handle e-mails from my boss immediately. I have set up rules so that e-mails from my boss play a tone and pop up in the bottom right-hand corner. Otherwise, I know the e-mail can wait. Every two hours or so I look at the “Unread Mail” folder and deal with every e-mail immediately by replying, deleting, or moving it to the appropriate folder. Things I need to follow up on later stay in my inbox and I look at my inbox every Friday. It’s always empty at the end of the week.

Barry Goldberg Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:46 pm

Two thoughts here…

I use a commercial email front end that sits over the top of Outlook and creates a virtual catalogue along with providing tools that should be in Outlook- but are not. Not a troll here- I have no interest in and get no money from the company - just a hppy customer: http://www.emailorganizer.com

On a more systematic basis, I think it is ironic that spammers whose actions are eventually going to make email as we know it collapse will have put themselves out of business. I anyone had dreamed what would have happened we email spam- it would have been designed out. When the whole system collapses, whatever follows will be purpose built to eliminate spam. They will have put themselves out of business.

Shanel Yang Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:52 pm

Letting myself feel overwhelmed was part of the problem. Instead, I check it in the morning, around lunch, and before I’m done for the day. I first delete everything that doesn’t look important at all. Then, I open the ones that might be important one by one and decide if they are or not. If not, delete. If yes, and I need to respond at all, I respond right away and move both the email and my response into the proper folder I’ve created for it (or create a new one if I need to).

Next, I start tackling all the important ones, one by one, and reply to all that I can at that moment. But, if I need more information or additional thought (usually not often), I just leave it in my inbox as “read” and let my subconscious mind kick it around in my head for a while till an idea suggest itself to me while I’m doing something else, then I immediately return to the email and get it done. As soon as I’m done, I move both the email and the reply into the proper folder.

Works for me! : )

Mike OD - The IF Life Says:

June 26th, 2008, 21:55 pm

Check at certain times….at most 3x a day (trying to get down to just once)…..delete, reply or take action…leave inbox empty at end of day. Never leave it open while on the computer and react to emails that come in and take me away from what I need to focus on….just deal with emails when I need to and move on with my day. (of course depending on your job this may or may not be possible)

Damian Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:05 pm

I tried Inbox Zero and, while I liked the idea, found the implementation a bit too complicated. I much prefer Gina Trapani’s “Trusted Trio” system: http://lifehacker.com/software/top/geek-to-live–empty-your-inbox-with-the-trusted-trio-182318.php

It’s also very important to separate your email from your TODO list: http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/separate-your-email-from-your-to+dos-272590.php

Jennie Rosenbaum Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:06 pm

I use applemail with all my accounts connected to it. I have a program called mailtags to assist with GTD style inboxing, but I never use it really. the GTD style decreases my productivity rather than adding to it. it may be because I am using multiple inboxes and email accounts.

my main way to deal with mail is with folders and rules and smart mailboxes. I use keyboard shortcuts to mark something as respond or urgent and I can go straight to the smart mailbox to keep track of them. I have mail accounts that are for specific things. a personal account, a work account and a newsletters account. my inbox is divided into those three accounts and mail is then divided into folders for rules, my main hobby for example has it’s own folder, all website based stuff goes in a different folder, shopping goes in another. I systematically read or scan through each one once a day and then do maintenance checks throughout the day. if something involves an application or a task, I use a GTD program and a hotkey to put the email straight in and set a date for completion.

my main problem is that I seem to have difficulty responding to emails. I put them off “to think about a response” then put them off and put them off until it may as well be too late to send which is usually my last excuse. it’s not an organization issue so much as a fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. I even have difficulty answering the lovely fan mail I get! I feel terrible about being so shy and unconfident when it comes to my responses.

reinkefj Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:21 pm

I have my email traffic split among more than 40 different email accounts. The account is dedicated to a type of traffic. I can ‘flush’, for example, the FYI Techie Emails when overwhelmed with out any risk of nuking something important.

Each of six financial institutions I deal with have their own unique cryptic email address. If an email purporting to come from them arrives on ANY other account, it’s by definition a phish.

Friends and relatives have dedicated accounts that are dedicated to them.

In outlook, the folders are ordered in priority order. So, when an unread message appears near the top, it gets handled before the ones at the bottom.

Authentiction, Truncation, and prioritization all rolled up into one.

My way works for me. The addition of my own domain has made it easier to manage email overall.

Bob Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:26 pm

I only check my email about 3 times during the day. I spend 30 minutes and bang out every message that comes in. I get them out of my mail box and follow a lot of the zero inbox principles. After that, I turn it off and actually do some work.

A second key I’ve learned is appropriate subject lines. If I need something from someone I put ACTION - xxx. If it’s simply an article I’d like to pass along then I put ARTICLE- INFO - xxx. I do this with just about every message in some way.

Brent Logan Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:34 pm

I have a couple rules set up in Outlook that automatically save every message I send or receive. I don’t have to worry about keeping anything in my inbox “for later.” Scan and act on it or delete it.

I’m also using Xobni for easy access to the archived e-mails.

Fraser Cain Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:40 pm

I have a page on my website that warns people that I’m totally overwhelmed and barely have time to respond to email. I encourage them to comment on stories, or join the forum and ask their question there. If they really really need to send me an email, then I provide the address, but I do everything I can to encourage emails to use the other avenues I’ve made available.

LivSimpl Says:

June 26th, 2008, 22:53 pm

It’s all about the filters and labels in Gmail. I have a couple dozen filters that I have do a lot of the work for me, including custom spam filters and a recently added “Skip Inbox, apply label Read Later” which keeps non-urgent e-mail out of the way.

These things, combined with Merlin’s “process it right away” mentality has been very effective in keeping everything under control.

http://www.LivSimpl.com

Joel Esler Says:

June 26th, 2008, 23:07 pm

I explain it all here:

http://blog.joelesler.net/2008/06/gtd-in-leopard-with-mailapp-and-ical.html

Ramesh | The Geek Stuff Says:

June 26th, 2008, 23:24 pm

My inbox is always at zero. I handle minimum 100 emails everyday at work, but as per the GTD process I handle them only once.

I sincerely follow the do, delegate and defer rule. When I decide to defer an action on a particular email, I don’t leave it in the inbox, instead goes to the appropriate @context list.

Also, when you are dealing with 100’s of emails, keyboard shortcut is the only way to process the inbox quickly.

Ramesh
The Geek Stuff

Steve Johnston Says:

June 26th, 2008, 23:27 pm

I am also a “Merlinesque” system for handling e-mail (and all of my other inboxes). The quirks of my system are as follows:

I use a product called NEO (http://www.emailorganizer.com) which helps provide a framework for e-mail management.

I don’t use e-mail filters - NEO provides a ‘better’ way of filtering e-mail into the right location.

Xobni (http://www.xobni.com/) is a recent addition to my system; it supplements, complements and replaces NEO to some extent. Some of the features are very useful, and it provides great e-mail statistics.

I book a limited amount of time each day to process e-mail. The 2-minute rule lets me ensure that I get to the bottom of the pile relatively quickly.

I turn off all of the reminders in the system (e-mail reminders, calendar reminders, etc). They are unnecessary distractions. I know when meetings are coming up, and I plan for them accordingly.

I receive approximately 150 e-mails per day (not including junk mail). This system keeps me pretty much ‘InboxZero’ the majority of the time — or, at least, after each processing session.

Alessia Maggi Says:

June 26th, 2008, 23:35 pm

I’m another GTD fan. My GTD system has been up, running, and doing wonders for me for two years now. I have an ACTION, a WAIT/FOR and a SHORT-TERM folder, and all the rest gets archived.

The short-term folder is for emails that contain information relevant only to the next few days, and which it would be useless to archive. The folder is automatically purged of emails older than 2 weeks.

Matt Says:

June 27th, 2008, 0:03 am

I, like most of the other users apply the GTD methodology summed up best in Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero with Gmail. I own a Dog Walking business, so I often have to respond to clients in a timely fashion, so I am constantly checking it.

After I have responded to the ones needing immediate attention, the inbox gets brought down to zero (about 80% of the time).

Emails either go to the trash, get archived, get responded to, or get labeled with .follow up. I also have filters set for stuff I don’t read so I don’t see it.

Shawn Petriw Says:

June 27th, 2008, 0:11 am

I second the second post about Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero.

Also, his series at 43 Folders is good for those who prefer to read vs. watch the video:

http://www.43folders.com/izero

Craig Says:

June 27th, 2008, 0:38 am

Me too for inbox-to-zero practice.

Other key tips: turn off automatic checking - manually check it as few times as you can get away with per day.

Do not set up an elaborate filing scheme. I’ve never not been able to locate important emails with searches. Each of my read emails goes one of three places:
- trash, if I’m completely positive I’m never going to need to see it again
- short-term archive, when I think I might want to see it again but will certainly not need to keep it long-term (I periodically delete everything but the last six months in this archive)
- long-term archive, when I think I might want to see it someday in the future.
With Apple Mail, a helper program called Mail Act-On works great for quickly assigning messages to any of the three destinations with a keystroke.

Mike King Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:00 am

Wait till you have 100 unread messages, then delete them all. Fast and a clean inbox after that. Rinse and Repeat!!

Just kidding! Handle them quick, never more than once. Like others said, you only get the email you invite. Also you can discourage a lot of responses in your own replies. When you send out an email, let people know that you DON’T want an email response, its just info. I find FYI mails can get discussions that aren’t really needed or better in person.

Phone is better than email, face to face is better than the phone.

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:17 am

I use the Rules Wizard in Outlook. All my clients have folders of their own, as do the discussion forums I belong to and other activities. So it means any email in my inbox either hasn’t got a rule set for it yet, or it’s a new client and/or something I need to action/respond to reasonably quickly. Likewise I use a spam filter so don’t get many of those in my inbox.

I like to keep my inbox down to less than 20 at the end of every day.

Unlike Mike above, I prefer email - I find the phone disruptive of my thinking and my work. And with email I can read through what I need to respond to and think about it, and re-read - no-one knows if I’m here till I respond.

Malte Sussdorff Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:22 am

I clean up the E-Mails on a regular schedule. I used to only do it three times a day, but now I actually do it right before I take a break.

So I work productively on something and take a break, e.g. to make tea or just let my mind wonder for about 10 minutes. Right before doing that I check the inbox, deal with everything below 2 minutes and defer the rest into the OmniFocus GTD solution.

I only keep E-Mails in there where I can’t decide what to do about them, and this is at max 4 in the evening.

In the morning the routine on the other hand is simple. Wake up, clean E-Mail Inbox (including the undecided messages), make breakfast and start the day. This has proven good because I don’t get a lot of messages during the night, there is a pressure to get breakfast and I actually can make a decision on those undecided E-Mails.

zero Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:25 am

Inbox zero here as well. Either I answer immediately with a few words, everthing else goes to OmniFocus or gets trashed.

Mark Mathson Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:25 am

Gmail: Turn Keyboard shortcuts on and use them extensively.

Outlook 2007: Use customized toolbars to setup shortcut keys to move emails into either an Action folder or Archive folder.

Action folder everything high priority
Archive folder everything I want to keep

I like the 5 sentences rule although I break it sometimes.

Richard Says:

June 27th, 2008, 1:26 am

I know you’re a Gmail user Leo and I heard this great idea recently but can’t remember where. you can give out different email addresses to people and receive them on the same inbox. Eg. em.ail@gmail.com or emai.l@gmail.com. I use this to seperate business from pleasure by the use of gmail tags.

Enjoy your honeymoon

Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann Says:

June 27th, 2008, 3:20 am

I also use the Zero Inbox approach. I move all incoming messages either to ‘Read’, ‘Action’ or ‘Waiting’, I file them, or I delete them right away. Then, I work through my Action items. I use Mail Template to quickly reply to standard enquiries and I try to keep replies short.

RSS is becoming a problem more and more, every day I have more than 800 articles to go over.

Hugo Says:

June 27th, 2008, 3:25 am

I love the GMail approach: don’t organize, search!
Microsoft has adopted this philosophy in Outlook 2007. (in combination with Windows Search)
I have one subfolder in my mailbox, called Archive. Every email I receive either gets deleted or archived. Finding back an email is easy using the search feature.
If an action is required in response to an email, I create a task by using the follow up feature. Tasks show up below the target date you set for them and are easily time-planned by dragging them into the calendar.
So my inboc is empty and my calandar is full ;)

Benjamin Bengfort Says:

June 27th, 2008, 3:48 am

If you use Outlook- I have a great tip, go to http://www.xobni.com and download the “awesome” (Bill Gates) add in to outlook that treats your email like a social network.

Xobni organizes your mail based on social networking principles from facebook, and email data is gathered automatically to tell you vital information like: when do I receive the most emails from one person, who is my number one email contact, who do I respond back to the fastest, what is my average response time, etc?

Xobni also sets up networks so that you can see who your email contacts are emailing as well based on who one email was sent to. This makes it easy to figure out if you are out of the loop on something.

Finally, Xobni provides at a glance contact information and recent emails from one person, and it does it seamlessly with the email experience.

I don’t work for Xobni, in fact I don’t even use outlook, I use Gmail- but I have found my coworkers at work drowning in email see Xobni as a lifesaver after I suggest it!

Alexandros Says:

June 27th, 2008, 3:52 am

I don’t use the email much…

Mike Says:

June 27th, 2008, 4:55 am

I use Opera as my email program, and so get a little notification every five minutes if I have new email. I respond to email as soon as I get it, so I never have more than two or three emails in my inbox at any one time.

Ahmad Alfy Says:

June 27th, 2008, 5:38 am

I use GMail … Its the best mail service available.

With GMail…
1- I have labels you can setup a filter that can add the label to any email matches the filter . Like if the mail contain certain word , from specific email addrss … etc

2- I never ‘delete’ -except maillists, messges …- but I actually ‘archive’.

3- GMail search function is AWESOME.

4- Important emails can be starred for easier identification and calling in the future.

When I login, I clean my inbox from all unuseful messages ( messages from facebook, notifications from sites … etc ) Then shift to the important messages. Then :

1- Add stars to the ones where I have to take actions ( client websites modifications, updates …etc )
2- Reply to the messages which require only to respont to.
3- Schedual the starred messages on my HighRishHQ account http://www.highrisehq.com ( Highrise helps you track communication and conversations with leads, employees, clients, colleagues, vendors, or anyone else that matters to your business. With Highrise you know who’ve you talked to, what you talked about, and what you need to do next. )
4- Do the work!

Thats all :)

Don Says:

June 27th, 2008, 5:48 am

ClearContext. Great Outlook add-in.

Alliston Says:

June 27th, 2008, 5:54 am

I have a program that manages all my email accounts (Windows Live Mail Desktop). I start it in the morning, read my emails, and delete them all. I archive only the emails from my bride, and some from the work. All the rest, trash!

Haven Esme Says:

June 27th, 2008, 6:37 am

We actually had an article about this on my site a few weeks ago.

To sum it up the article was:

Stop the Spam
Stop the chain letters
Prioritize
Set a Time to Check it
Dont give your email out to strangers.

Michael Moniz Says:

June 27th, 2008, 6:41 am

I think it all comes done to how you handle the email you get. It ia very easy to limit your personal email but in the working environment it can be hard to reduce the number.

For work, I recommend only checking your once a day. This can be hard habit to create but remember, we normally only want a response within 24 hours. Checking it once a day will still be faster than that.

I set aside the time each day, I go through all my emails and answer them all so my inbox is clear. If I do not know the answer but need to research it, I will still reply and let them know.

What I have found is people get use to the pattern of when I check my email so they make sure to put all the information in one email. It has also reduce the amount of URGENT emails I get because they realize no matter what type you send, I will only be checking it once a day.

The other great part is productivity. I am not stopping every few minutes to respond and work on one email. Instead I am able to dedicate a whole time frame to just this task and they get my full attention.

Jimbooo! Says:

June 27th, 2008, 6:48 am

1) Automate as much as possible. Use the filters. Use a spam blocker.
2) Keep your inbox empty. If you’ve read an email, either archive it or delete it.

Brandon W Says:

June 27th, 2008, 7:12 am

Leo,
2 strategies that work together:

1) I like the Gmail strategy of filters and tags. You can set filters to tag your email and then automatically archive it, but the label name in the tag list will be bolded and identify that there is “new” mail under that tag. You can then click that tag and look at only email that relates to a particular issue (for example “blog”). This way, you can tackle new emails in batches, by subject-matter.

2) Check email only twice a day (or less). Tim Ferriss goes over this in detail in his book and on his blog (see http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/category/low-information-diet-and-selective-ignorance/). Set up autoresponders to let people know you “check email once per day at 1pm… if this requires my attention before then, please call my cell phone…”. This strategy alone will cut down on email as people realize you aren’t going to drop everything you’re doing every time they email you.

Kathie Thomas, A Clayton's Secretary Says:

June 27th, 2008, 7:34 am

For those who say ‘check your email once a day’, I think that really has to depend on what you do online. If it’s purely to maintain contact with people and keep informed, then that’s a great idea. Newsletters, forums and emails from others can be a real distraction.

However, if your business is built almost entirely on email contact/instructions from clients and requests from new clients, then often that information is time sensitive and needs to be responded to as soon as is practicable. Of course, this is an understanding that is developed at the beginning of a business relationship when being supported by service providers. And not all service providers operate in that way.

Adam Says:

June 27th, 2008, 8:09 am

- Goal to keep inbox < 10 messages
- Read / respond to e-mail every 3 hours
- Only respond when necessary (reduces further responses)
- Clear / concise / short responses: 5 sentences max + bullet points where possible + focus on actions
- Move complex e-mails to separate action list

Marc and Angel Hack Life Says:

June 27th, 2008, 8:19 am

Not only do I handle my email indox, I actually use it as my GTD inbox for processing all my open loops.

I wrote a bit more about it here: http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/06/16/how-to-get-things-done-in-1-minute/

Flint Says:

June 27th, 2008, 8:36 am

GTD and all those other suggestions are great, but I found three things made the biggest impact:
1) Have two separate accounts for work/non work stuff and focus only on whichever is relavant at the time.
2) Unsubscribe from EVERYTHING. Are newsletters really necessary in this day and age with RSS feeds on every single site (and AideRSS to thin those down).
3) Deleting stuff is ok. If my inbox is a bit overfull, step one is to run through and delete anything insignificant that may have come through.

Harmony Says:

June 27th, 2008, 8:36 am

For my work emails I check them every few hours and cull ruthlessly by deleting, filing, or answering immediately. Most days I’ll get about 50 emails, but I always start with about 5 and end with the same number.

For my personal emails I use Gmail. My rule is I check it once when I get home from work and I’ve got half an hour to deal with my inbox. Like at work I cull ruthlessly, I try to have no more than 3-5 emails in my inbox at once.

Sometimes there just isn’t time within the half hour to cull and answer *all* my emails so I’ll leave some for the next time. I’ve learnt that the faster I reply to someone the faster they just reply right back, so I try to leave at least a few days - sometimes a week or more - between replies to keep my inbox manageable.

For RSS feeds I stick to 10 subscriptions or less. Quality over quantity :)

Dot H. Says:

June 27th, 2008, 9:29 am

Good spam filters which I continue to “train,” active discouragement of chain letter emails from friends, unsubscribe constantly, no listservs unless I am actively posting on one (otherwise read them online when there’s time), and lots of rules and folders. Unlike the GTD folks, though, I don’t keep an empty in box. Important emails remain in the in box until they’ve been acted on or the meeting or whatever they reference is over.

Selene M. Bowlby Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:06 am

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for email, and a very basic GTD system (I’m still reading / implementing the theories from the book).

Under my inbox, I have an Action folder, with sub-folders for Billing, Clients, In House, Networking, Personal and Prospects. I also have a Tickler File/Folder with sub-folders for each of the 12 months.

I’ll process as many emails straight from my inbox as possible (anything that I can quickly respond to, for example). Otherwise they go into the applicable folders within the Action pile - that way when I’m doing client work I can process emails in that folder… or when I’m writing proposals, I’ll have all of my Prospect emails together, etc.

I use the tickler file for whatever is way down the line, and I check the month folders once or twice a month to see what’s coming up “next” month.

I also have an extensive set of Saved folders - Billing, Personal, In House, Networking, Prospects and one folder for each of my clients. When I’ve finished doing something from the Action area up by the inbox, then I move my sent and received emails on the topic to the applicable saved folders. Perfect for referring back to old information, esp for clients. As for the prospects folder - if it didn’t work out with a potential client, I move them to the Saved Prospects folder - this way I still have contact info and a record of what they were interested in. I check through this to follow-up every few months or so.

Not perfect, but I’m working on it. I admit I don’t get to inbox zero on a daily basis - more like 2x a week. I’m working on it, though! ;)

Stephen Smith Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:07 am

Good morning folks, thanks for submitting all of the great comments and ideas. It is wonderful to see all of the sharing going on.

Paulo Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:31 am

I use Opera as my browser and, with time, have learned to use it as my mail cliente as well.
The first advantage is the fact that I can read all my RSS and email at the same place and at handle them at the same time. If I’m too busy RSS feeds can be hidden with one click anyway. Whatever messages need further action, I leave them as unread until I can deal with them in the weeked. Usually I don’t have more than 10 unread messages at once - all that can fit in my layout without a scrollbar showing up.
Opera’s philoshophy is very close to GMail - catalog email if I want and in how many categories I want. And then, if I ever need to find an email or RSS post, I just goto “All Messages” and type whatever text I’m trying to find… search is super fast.

Katie Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:31 am

I took a lesson from Randy Pauch about email. Look him up on YouTube- it is in his time management speech.

I only access my email (personal) email twice a day and have taken the alert off my email at work…I check it when I have a break in the action….my theory is that if it is really, really, super important someone will come ask me a question instead of emailing.

rioeagle Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:35 am

My email mess:
I Have around 20 diff accounts pointing to my outlook.(work related) Some are support, therefore I only need this for quality assurance once in a while. I get arround 500 emails a day. 80% spam(semi-spam), 15 % support, 5% direct comunication.
I use outlook: with more thatn 50 rules, 200 folders, my email is about 3.5 gigs.
my tips:

-Try to read check it only 2 times a day.
I airplane time I remove the bigger and older email, and clear the main inbox.

-have 3 different set of rules just for managing all the SPAM, not captured by my antispam. In your work related email acoounts. Social group invitations coming from a suported customer? maybe not.. to the spam basket.

-have a normal Hotmail account for IM, Facebook and other stuff, with high up filters. This is the one not so close friends can write to. This one I check not more than once a day, and in is the one to use if something need help on the weekends. Since i can access it wherever.
I

Matthew Says:

June 27th, 2008, 10:46 am

I ignore most forwards and filter out spam.

I also don’t send a lot of frivolous emails (forwards, time wasters, etc.) so I get few in return.

Campodiez Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:03 am

I put all my email messages in folders, sorted by subject, like friends, family, business, weblog and so on. I put the messages in these folders after I sent a reply. This means that all of the messages still in my inbox haven’t been replied. It works great for me!

Rick Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:04 am

Des Paroz’s comment mirrors my own method. I used to live in a world of an inbox that contained no less than 150 messages at any given time. Since I began to use the GTD strategy with a few tweaks a few months ago my inbox is empty. I am a huge fan of email, preferring it to picking up the phone in certain situations, but I’m the first to admit that it is the biggest, most invasive, time waster in the workplace.

Jason Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:05 am

I’m lucky, I work at a computer lab 3 days a week and check my email there only, and never at home. If it’s not necessary (and I know it is for you, but perhaps not for all your readers) you could get rid of internet at your home and use the local library, provided there’s one nearby. That will force you to check your email less, surf the web less, etc etc, further zen-ing your life.

Susan Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:10 am

I generally look at my gmail email account each morning. I set my timer for one hour with a relaxed intention to completely review all of my personal emails within that time period. I delete or indicate an email is ’spam,’ if it has originated from an advertiser, retailer or someone I do not know. I reply to any emails that need a reply. If one hour does not allow sufficient time to respond to an email appropriately, I place a yellow ’star’ on that email, a gmail feature that allows me to give that particular email initial attention the next morning or whenever I find free time and feel inspired to respond more completely. . . I don’t stress over unanswered emails, but yet try to show give sacred attention to those emails from people/family I care about.

Rachel R. Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:17 am

Add me to the “overwhelmed” category - largely because I have way too much stuff archived in here. It doesn’t need to be in my email client, except that I can’t READ it later unless I keep it stored here. Anyone know if there’s a (simple, not-too-time-consuming) way to export an email from Outlook Express to some other, normal, file format, so I can archive “informational” emails in My Documents instead of in my email, and can still actually read them in the future? That would eliminate many folders, and literally thousands of emails, for me!

Also, when you receive email notifications about usernames and passwords at various websites where you’ve registered, how/where do you store that information?

Jen Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:26 am

I have gmail. It has worked wonders! I have folders assigned for e-mails I wish to save: Special e-mails from the boyfriend/friends/family. So even if I haven’t chosen to delete a particular e-mail, I assign it to its folder and it virtually disappears. Most of the time I tend to the e-mail, whether it needs responding, deleting, or to be placed in a folder, right away. For times when I’m unable to do that. I place a star next to it. It’s quite a nice system actually!

Brooklynchick Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:43 am

1. Turned off the notification in Outlook - I get no fadeup when a new msg comes in, no little envelope in the corner. Allows me to focus on writing.

2. Use colored flags! Red for urgent, purple for personal, yellow for reading (over lunch).

3. Every day make sure there are less than 100 emails in my inbox.

conceição Says:

June 27th, 2008, 11:57 am

i have a gmail and it woks well. i have no problem because i delete a lot.

Sue Says:

June 27th, 2008, 12:05 pm

Email is my scratchpad, my love letter, and my modern day rolodex, but my hard and fast rule is that I don’t email at night or outside of work. I’m on the lookout for analytic tools for Gmail since self-awareness of my email behavior will hopefully help target bad habits or susceptibility to unnecessary inbox compulsion while I’m actually at work, which is probably causing small but predictable amounts of needless worry and stress. But not emailing at night definitely has made a huge difference for me. Most things you can get done at work or leave for the next day at work, where, if like me you work in a cube at a desk on a computer all day as a programmer, you clock a ridiculous amount of staring at a computer already and naturally need small 5min or 10min breaks. But time you spend outside of work is definitely NOT meant to be spent this way. I’m a firm believer that email is definitely a “you are what you eat” dilemma, and if you allow people to contact you at every time of day, you’ll check your email so often out of habit, just to make sure you’re upholding that standard you’ve set, but if you create a sense of anticipation, the email you send and receive may not be instantaneous, but will dictate habitual hours that you create that suit you rather than suiting an unfounded sense of urgency.

Peter Blue Says:

June 27th, 2008, 12:06 pm

After living with up to 700 mails in my inbox, I decided it was time for a change. Two month ago I checked my inbox and either deleted, filed (if important like registratinons) or answered the mails.
Since that day my inbox is always empty. It even feels as if my desk is cleaner now!

Eric Says:

June 27th, 2008, 12:51 pm

Filtering emails is a very simple and helpful step. I have folders for every filter on both for my work and personal mail. Unfiltered ones goes straight to my inbox but I get to read and discard emails right away. Keeping my inbox clean and organized. Turn on your Spam blocker too!

OlDStaleNegative Says:

June 27th, 2008, 13:05 pm

Gmail for personal mail (syncs with my iPhone), work-provided email address messages come to my work computer only where I use Entourage to run both work + private messages while at work - I can access work emails via webmail when out of the office on the iPhone tho I try not to.

Turn Sync services on in OSX and Entourage, Address Book, and Gmail all play friendly and sync perfectly.

I aim for zero messages in INBOX, but there’s usually under 10 lurking…minimal folder structure: sent, deleted, archive

Barry Morris Says:

June 27th, 2008, 14:23 pm

One word: Gmail.

OK, more than one word…I have customized email addresses to match my four domain names (all blog sites). They all forward to one Gmail account that allows me to respond from the domain appropriate address. Plus, Gmail catches 300 spam emails per day.

Makes my former email client -Outlook- pale in comparison.

Georgie B Says:

June 27th, 2008, 14:41 pm

Usually I have an e-mail problem at work, and only when I’m out of the office.

I have Outlook, which about sums it up for state govt.

Anyways, what I try to do when I come in on Monday after payday, I flag all my e-mails and wait a couple of hours before answering them. By the time those hours pass, I’m in a more calmer mood to answer them.

One other thing that helps me wait out that time frame is a little saying that I keep hidden in my cube: “Don’t answer stupid staff’s stupid questions, first thing in the morning.”

Saves grief, saves aggravation, and most importantly, saves me from getting into trouble for sending a provacative response.

Khürt Williams Says:

June 27th, 2008, 14:49 pm

Merlin’s Zero Inbox. I also introducted it to my coworkers and my manager some of whom have embraced it. I also let my coworkers know that I read my email at 8 AM, 11 AM, 2 PM, and 4:30 PM ONLY!

Copywriter Says:

June 27th, 2008, 14:57 pm

All subscriptions to e-zines are handled with a gmail address, separate from my normal e-mail address.

Piankeshaw Says:

June 27th, 2008, 15:11 pm

E-mail can be a blessing and a curse. I have several tactics I use to control e-mail.

1.) E-mail is NEVER an alternative to direct human contact. You don’t do condolences via e-mail or anything sensitive.

2.) I use a service called FASTMAIL. It is worth paying for. I have NEVER had spam with this service and it has some extemely cool features that allow me to organize my e-mail and use multiple addresses.

3.) Always use BCC when sending a mass e-mail so that others cannot see everyones’ address. This is a courtesy issue.

4.) I know someone who knows someone who sends out a BULLSHIT CITATION to people who send those annoying chain e-mails, or the Urban Legend of the moment, or that kid needing a kidney transplant who’s been dead ten years now, or the angel and fairy e-mails that if you don’t respond you’ll burn in hell or go blind……. Please do not forward these!!!

5.) I have a completely seperate address for anything that requires an e-mail address on the internet for registration. These tend to be spam-magnets.

6.) Always use the out-of-office notification.

Anne Says:

June 27th, 2008, 15:30 pm

Great, timely topic; but I wish it had come last month, when I spent an entire day, 8-12 and 12:30-5, clearing 1000 work emails and setting up a new system! Here’s what I came up with:
First, all non-work email goes to gmail. Work emails go to work email. I disabled Outlook because it made more work for me (YMMV–I know a lot of people love it).
In each of those accounts I follow the same simple procedures:

1. The inbox IS the action folder, & the waiting folder too. Anything in the inbox will need my attention, the sooner the better. No folders; I delete everything except what I’ll need a record of later. Those mails go in an “archive.” If I need to find something, I use search. Anything left in inbox at end of day is “waiting” for someone else to act. So, only three places in the account: inbox, sent, and archive.
2. Like so many posters here, I discourage nonessential/chain/mass mails by letting friends/family know that I delete them (and then I do). Spam filters are up and running.
3. I only check email once a day at 3 pm, M-F, and never check work mail on weekends. (I’m a professor so I let students & colleagues know this, so they can know when to expect to hear from me; I even note this on my web page and on every syllabus.) Why 3pm? It allows me to use my most productive hours (a.m.) on research and writing, and then catch up with less essential admin and communication in my lower-energy times. It leaves just enough time at the end of the day to still reach people if I need to call.
4. At 3 pm, I set a timer for one hour and do all work email first. If there’s any time left in the hour (ha!) I check personal mail. Thus, most personal mail has to wait ’til the weekends; I tell friends/family this so they can know what to expect.

Thanks for the great tips, everyone, and thanks for the topic, Leo.

Eva Says:

June 27th, 2008, 15:39 pm

My main tip is that I have a separate email address that I give out to Websites or anything else that might send me spam as well as for bacn (any of the newsletters, notifications, etc. that I sign up for). Then my other personal email address is only for important correspondence, and it’s easy to see and respond to the real stuff.

In the bacn/spam email address, I pick out anything that’s important when I check it once or twice a day and read, deal with it, forward to the important email address to deal with later, etc. Then whenever the spam/bacn inbox gets too clogged, I can just do a mass delete. This has been very helpful–I used to lose important emails in the mess of bacn.

In the important email inbox, right now I just star emails that I need to get back to and can’t handle right away, but I probably need a better system. I like reading the tips here!

Ian Parker Says:

June 27th, 2008, 15:41 pm

I use the Inbox Zero method that Merlin Mann developed. My inbox is always empty and it is quite refreshing. In addition to Inbox Zero, however, I have also aggregated all my e-mail addresses to one GMail account and have begun trimming down the newsletters and other bacn that I receive.

As the year wears on, I plan on retiring some of the old and unused e-mail addresses and eventually consolidating down to just one GMail account. SpamGourmet (http://www.spamgourmet.com/) will be used for disposable addresses. If you’ve never tried it, it’s a handy service, although it works in a similar way to the email+tag@gmail.com style of addressing.

Brett Says:

June 27th, 2008, 15:53 pm

Before I leave the office, I make sure that my Inbox has no email in it, that way I know I have finished my day. I have emails that need to be looked at and I can’t answer them right away they get moved to the task area with a deadline on them. But most of the time I can sit down and answer all my emails in time I set aside for emails. But I don’t have as many emails as some people.

Thanks,

Brett

V Says:

June 27th, 2008, 16:03 pm

Inbox Zero here since February. I also don’t have auto-notify turned on, and check e-mails only three times a day (and not at all on weekends). Simply getting up from my chair and going to talk with co-workers reduced my e-mail volume by at least 30 per cent (and it’s good exercise!). I keep a “Current Projects” folder into which I put all active threads that I need to monitor - otherwise, out they go.

Hope Martin Says:

June 27th, 2008, 16:50 pm

I enjoy email, when I was caring for my sister at home, she had a stroke, it was my social life. I have made some wonderful friends over the years, some go back 15 years, I care about them, and they are always there for me. I also know which ones to not open, and thank goodness for spam control!
I wouldnt know about this site, if it were not for a friend emailing me the address!
If I am really tired I dont really like the phone, and I turn off my IM on the computer, to be able to pursue my interests uninterrupted. Its all good.

Christopher Palmer Says:

June 27th, 2008, 17:01 pm

I’ve read all of the advice about “only check e-mail once or twice per day” and I’ve read all of the comments here saying, “Don’t reply by e-mail, go face-to-face or pick up the phone” or “E-mail only require an answer within 24 hours”.

If those work (or apply) for you, congratulations. If I don’t answer e-mails but once a day, my inbox fills up to the point where I put off bothering to go through it.

I *hate* calling people on the phone or trying to catch them in their offices, they’re never there, or you interrupt them, and then you play phone tag and waste time wandering the halls. The whole benefit of e-mail is that it is asynchronous.

As for not replying or expecting responses within 24 hours… Where do you guys work? Our business lives on e-mail. The asynchronous aspect helps avoid wasted time and annoyances (see above), but if you’re somewhere at work and get an e-mail or need an answer, you start getting in trouble if it goes more than an hour without response. Heaven forbid someone e-mails you an important question, waits two hours, comes to your building and office and finds you sitting at your desk not checking your e-mail. Yes, the entire corporate culture could possibly change, but it isn’t likely…

Kim Says:

June 27th, 2008, 17:01 pm

I keep my work email in folders, by project and it only gets moved there once it’s complete. Then I know I have record of it, but I know I’ve responded or taken action if it’s been moved. I average almost 1,000 emails a day so I know it can be tough. For personal email, I have one that goes only to friends, one for business outside of work such as resumes or something like that. I have another that I use in contests, as signing up for things, etc so that all spam goes there.
For my personal (friends) I take advantage of the labeling and the archiving features they offer to keep things without keeping them in the inbox.
Hope that helps.

Piankeshaw Says:

June 27th, 2008, 19:29 pm

I’m not trying to flame here, but, let me introduce a novel concept here. THE PARAGRAPH BREAK.

Rather than giant blocks of text, break it down into readible bites. When you shift ideas, hit “ENTER” twice to let the gentle reader know you’ve shifted ideas.

Yeah, yeah…it’s the English major coming out it me!!

Wendy Says:

June 27th, 2008, 20:17 pm

I never check my email first thing in the morning, that way I get through some other icky tasks and then only deal with email at set times. This keeps me focused and I do not get distracted by minor emails.
I also try and zero my inbox each day. I also love the comment about what we “invite” into our inbox.
I also use rules to set up folders for different roles and I have, so emails go into the appropriate folder immediately.

Lotta Says:

June 27th, 2008, 20:29 pm

I have rules set up for things like yahoo groups, subscriptions and billpay notices. The rest simply flood through. I am pretty fast these days, delete most forwards, read action or to-do-list others and scan the rest. I dislike having my mailbox full too! I get easily 100 emails a day plus and thats personal stuff .

Ryan McLean. Says:

June 27th, 2008, 20:29 pm

At the moment I don’t get LOADS of emails, but for me I have an email address for everyday stuff and an email address for my blog.
So I will go through each at different times and I find separating the two helps keep me in the right frame of mind for answering emails

Aura Says:

June 27th, 2008, 20:40 pm

I use Outlook to keep up with 5 different email accounts and filter junk mail (over 2000 a day!). Aside from my Inbox and Archives folder, I have folders for different categories (work, bills and statements, etc.). When I check my mail (about 5 times a day), if I can’t go through or finish everything in my Inbox, I put it in the pending folder. So far, I can’t seem to get it below 5 messages…

Audrey Says:

June 28th, 2008, 0:47 am

How I keep my inbox from overloading:

1) use an email client with a good filter (gmail filters just fine for me)

2) put all my email lists on digest.

3) categorize my email and have some email remove to separate folders

4) Keep addresses for different purposes. (I never give out my main email address to sites I’m unsure of. Instead, I use alternate email addresses that I bounce to my main. That way, I can delete the whole address if necessary)

5) Stay out of chatrooms and other places where I might get put up on a list. Watch how many listservs I join.

Henrik Says:

June 28th, 2008, 7:59 am

I previously let Outlook check email once every hour, but now I’ve turned off the automatic check completely. Instead, I set up an autoresponder telling that I only check email twice a day, at 11 am and 4 pm, and that if they need a quicker response they need to call me. I must say it felt strange not checking email more than twice a day at first. But I realised that much of my time had been spent fidgeting with email instead of performing. My new approach keeps me less stressed about email and I can now focus more on output instead of dealing with all the input in the form of email. Email surely is the main distraction from getting things done, at least for me.

As for processing email during those set times, I look for the meaning of every message (after deleting irrelevant ones). If action is required, I flag it an set the appropriate category and then file it in one of my project folders. It’s then gone from my inbox but the action connected to it is captured in the tasks section of Outlook. Then I have a nice overview of all the actions I need to take.

Using this approach leaves me with an inbox zero and complete control of my actions, which truly is a nice feeling.

Henrik

Miss Gisele B Says:

June 28th, 2008, 9:30 am

I used to overwhelm by email initially but now I have marked some mail as spam that I don’t require. Some emails also provide the option to “unsubscribe” - if you don’t want to receive any further email from them. So, I generally choose the option to get rid of those unnecessary mails.

Stephen Smith Says:

June 28th, 2008, 11:13 am

Thanks for all of the great comments and suggestions about how you handle your e-mail. I think that Leo will really get a charge out of this when he returns.

.:robyn:. Says:

June 28th, 2008, 11:27 am

Awesome stuff here. I’m also a zero-inboxer and got a few cool tips reading your comments. Thank you!

* I also use Gmail. It really is the best, and it’s still in beta

* I turned on gmail labs:
one feature is the 15 minute “take a break” where it covers my inbox while turned on.
Another is color coded stars, not just yellow!
And I love the quicklinks bar, it allows me to archive msg’s and add a link to them as a reminder to do something with it
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=29418&hl=en

*I color code some labels so they stand out when checking my email. (that might be labs too, I don’t recall)

*I limit how often I check it per day. Depending of course on whether I am conversational or needing to GTD

*I begin by trashing stuff/I note what I trash most often and unsubscribe from those mailings

*I report spam whenever necessary.

*I reply to spam fwd’s so that people know I don’t like them. If it’s something like a warning email, I’ll look it up on snopes.com or other email urban legend sites and send the link to the sender with a request that they send emails that are credible.

*I recently learned a new trick in gmail which Ian pointed out: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=12096 (Thanks Pachi!)

*I reply and remove (delete or archive), and label when necessary

*I save documents to google docs, which I also apply a zero inbox policy to

I hope some of this is helpful to someone. I love the community on this site and am glad to have found it.

XOsRB

jjson Says:

June 28th, 2008, 12:03 pm

I use a pay web based email system, which provides a great service and many options for email. http://www.fastmail.fm

By using web based, nothing is on my laptop, so no viruses to download or worry about.

I use alias emails for certain functions. Example - If I plan for a vacation, I create a new email address, then search, plan, book, my trip using this address. When I am done, I delete the address so the hotels and airlines will not be able to spam me forever with deals deals deals.

Traci Says:

June 28th, 2008, 13:54 pm

I’m a little OCD when it comes to email.

At home, I make sure my email’s spam block is on, and I immediately unsubscribe to junk ads that I receive and don’t want.

At work, I like my inbox completely empty. So when I get a new email I take care of the request right away. If it’s something that will take awhile to work on, I print it off and put it in my TO DO file. Most of my work emails can be handled with a quick response, so I’m not wasting too much paper.

I never understood how people could keep every single email in there inbox, and have to search for a message to respond. It’s so much easier to just take care of it and then either delete the message or archive it.

Set up a folders in your archive and put important emails there for future reference. Since I work in a legal department this is essential.

Thanks for this awesome website! I absolutely love it!
Traci :)

Soft Skills Says:

June 28th, 2008, 14:08 pm

I used to get tons and tons of email. But using a two dimensional approach I have managed to slow them down considerably. One, as suggested, is to use GTD style of efficiency. Of course the variation that works best for you. The second is, the more email you send out the more you get back. However more email doesnt mean more results. So I have cut down on outgoing email unless necessary and that has worked really well. The other thing is that reading emails is fairly quick. responding can be quite time consuming.

So when I get an email, if I have to reply in two sentences, I will do it, pretty much like a 2 minutes rule in GTD.

If it takes more than 2 sentences, and is critical, I simply give the person a call and explain. Time and again this has worked well. It cuts the “back and forth emailing” and the delayed thinking. You just talk to the person and sort it all out. If it is not critical, or you don’t have the phone number, then it probably is not worth the hassle t reply anyway. After all you should be concentrating on non urgent important stuff most of the time.

Any thoughts?

conceição Says:

June 28th, 2008, 15:46 pm

fastmail =fastfood, yes but i have to wattch my diet

Ken Says:

June 28th, 2008, 17:07 pm

I’m in a big corporation that lives by Outlook. My key stress-shedding principles: 1) you placing a note into my Inbox does not re