10 Steps To Stay Focused At Work: Step 9 - Sort Email Before It Gets Out Of Control

Email in-boxes are amazing in the way they can accumulate messages seemingly overnight. You check your emails, respond to them, and the next day they seem to have tripled. A well organized in-box can take you far in the name of focus and organization.

Open Emails When You're Ready to Respond

In the same way that some people only open their paper mail when they're absolutely prepared to deal with all of it, open your emails when you have time to respond to them. How often have we opened all our emails to see what they say, then decide to wait until later to respond? Later turns into tomorrow, then the next day, and all of a sudden we realized we never replied to that email.

Timing is Everything

Set up a time of day that works best for you to respond to emails. Prioritize your tasks so that you are not rushing through any one task to start on another. Maybe it's easiest for you to check email only once every day and first thing in the morning. If your in-box is receiving messages all day long, maybe check it every hour on the hour. Or check it only after you've accomplished a task on your list and marked it off. This way you stay focused on your current task, but don't neglect any others.

Fill Others In

If you decide to check email only occasionally in an office where people sent emails like text messages, let others know what your system is. If you check first thing in the morning and not again until lunch time, when you send that email back, tell the person when you'll next be available. If they need something beforehand, they can call you. This way you both get done what you need to.

Organize the In-Box

Create new folders in your in-box to organize your emails. If you need to keep some on record, designate an appropriate folder for the email and drop it in immediately after reading. Or, set up an automatic filter in your email to designate proper locations of emails. This way you can check only the emails you need to, when you are ready to.

Spam

Be sure to keep your spam mail filters up to date. Regularly mark spam emails as such and report them to your email provider. If you do this diligently you'll dramatically reduce the amount of spam emails you receive, thus clearing your inbox of extra clutter.

Next week: Step 10 - Limit Web Browsing.

[sniplet Focus Excel]