I created Living ROI as a passion, to share my experiences and support others who want to live more authentic, joyful and fulfilling lives.

Dear Friends,

What happens when your email volume (or backlog) exceeds your capacity to reply? In two words, guilt and stress.

Are you ever haunted by your email inbox(es)? Likely, you have a personal and at least one business email. I have a few email inboxes, and they have been haunting me for the last few weeks.

I remember when email entered the workforce in 1994. It was transformative. It didn’t take long before people started to get backlogged and a new industry cropped up around email management.

I’ve studied and applied numerous email strategies and philosophies over the years. I’m sure you have too. Some of my favorites include:

  • Move every email that is older than three weeks into a “catch all” folder and focus on managing the latest emails. This is a great way to make catching up more manageable. You can always go back to the “catch all” folder as needed.
  • I once heard, “Don’t worry about overlooking an email. If something is urgent, people will send another email or reach out another way.”
  • Only touch an email once. According to the Getting Things Done philosophy, this is how you process each email (and any other incoming content): If you can deal with it in 2 minutes or less, do it. Otherwise, determine if you need to defer it, delegate it, delete it or file it. Bottom line… get it out of your inbox after you touch it for the first time. When you defer it, you may put it on the calendar, in an action folder or maybe file it in an incubator folder (someday list). See the “Getting Things Done” flowchart below.
  • Of course, email maintenance should include regularly getting off lists and distributions that are not necessary, and possibly using the built-in tools to do auto-filing as email comes in.
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How I wish I could/would follow these guidelines consistently. There have been moments when I get to a zero inbox. Sometimes I can maintain it for a few weeks, but eventually it creeps back up because I have a life that exists outside of email.

What I do know is that I worry about it more than I should. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to get certain emails; especially in response to this newsletter. Those are my favorites.

My primary work inbox used to get into the thousands. Now, with the help of my ace executive assistant, Ginny, I keep it under 500 even in the worst of email times.

Philosophically, we know we shouldn’t live our lives reactively inside of our email. We need to set our priorities, focus on them and fit email management in around them. I could spend all my time responding to emails, but that would be a sad life for me.

I judge myself on this topic. “Barbara, why can’t you stay consistent and keep your email under control?” That type of judgment is not helpful. Instead, I need to remind myself why I’ve gotten behind. I have legit reasons. And then I just need to do the best I can. Life is too short to lose sleep over email!

Do you have favorite and effective email tips or philosophies to share? I’d love to hear them and pass them on through a future newsletter!

Wishing you peaceful productivity,

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Barbara Fagan-Smith
CEO, ROI Communication
Chief Catalyst, Living ROI

 

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