Control your Outlook Inbox, Once and For All

When you open Microsoft Outlook, what do you see?

How many messages do you have? Do you have to scroll down to view all of them? Are many of them unread? Does just the thought of them all overwhelm you?

Some of my clients tell me that they feel paralysed at the thought of their inbox bursting at its seams.

Your inbox is not a place to hold all your mail just like your physical mailbox outside your house doesnt keep all the letters, accounts and junk mail youve ever received.

When I check my mailbox every day, I dont bring all the mail in, read through it all and take it right back outside to put back inside the mail box. Do you?

Then why do we do that with our computer inbox?

Its because we dont want to make decisions and because we dont have a system.

E-clutter happens when you open an email, cant decide what to do about it and so you close it again. And there it sits waiting for you

When I see 1427 and 1658 emails in clients inboxes, first I start twitching and then I ask why they torture themselves like this. The reply I always get is they want to cover themselves. Sound familiar?

I have a solution that is quick and easy for you.

Make a new folder, call it @todays date (where todays date is the actual date, e.g. ), drag everything into that folder and start afresh. Now if you need an email from there, click Find on your menu bar and use the search function to track the email.

Take charge tip if you know who sent it, double-click on that persons name in your Contacts, click on Activities, wait just a second and Outlook will list all emails with their exact location. Try it you will LOVE it.

Then after that, create these 7 new habits:

1. Set a goal

Decide to have an inbox with no more than 20 (or whatever your comfort number is) items at any one time. Play a game with yourself and make a point of deleting a certain number of items daily. These can be from your inbox, sent items, folders, etc.

2. Set times during the day to read and process emails

For the most part, emails are a distraction so check emails only after you do your most important task of the day. Decide on one or two other times to process emails, maybe around lunch time and then just before you leave the office. Take charge tip while youre getting into the habit, make an appointment with yourself two or three times a day to process email.

3. Delete junk mail immediately

Junk mail is anything you have not signed up for and includes chain letters, petitions, solicitations, scams, etc. Take charge tip before deleting, right click the email, click Junk Mail and then add the sender to your Blocked Senders list.

4. Process email using the two-minute rule

Discipline yourself to action anything if it can be done in two minutes or less. I cut down my email processing time by 30 minutes a day just by doing this one thing! If you have to forward an email to someone, do it there and then. If you quickly need to change someones address in Contacts, drag the email to the Contacts button and release. It opens up the contact and you can save changes and then delete the email.

5. Identify the next action

Even if you cant completely process the email in two minutes, at least identify the next action. If you have to phone someone to discuss the email, use the subject line to write your next action step before dragging it into a subfolder, e.g. asian adult chat to Michelle, write report, etc. Then save. Now the next time you look at that message, you know exactly what to do.

6. Make folders

Most people dont use folders correctly. You dont make individual folders just to drag all the contents of your inbox into these folders. First of all, limit the number of folders and second, have meaningful folders like @Follow up, @To read, @To phone, etc. The @ sign in the front means that I have to action those folders. In my schedule, I have time blocked out to do some phoning, following up, reading, etc.

7. Set up rules

Even if you cant completely process the email in two minutes, at least identify the next action.

Go to Tools, and under Organize, you can set up rules to send emails automatically from certain senders to specific folders. I use this function for all personal emails.

Take charge tip you can make a folder called To read and set up a rule to send all your newsletters directly to this folder.

The main thing to realise is that your inbox is not a place to store your e-junk and that with a system, you too can manage your inbox.

Marcia Francois is a personal life coach and professional organizer who teaches busy people how to have more time, less stress and a more organised and fulfilled life. Visit http://www.takechargesolutions.org for your free Organise your Home e-book and http://www.organisingtips.blogspot.com for other helpful organising tips.

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