10 Ways to Control Your Inbox

The first of the year is a great time to reorganize, purge and prepare the new.  We do this at our home in our bedrooms, with bills and documents and even our clothing.  But we often overlook our email, specifically our inbox.  Most people use their email each and every day and it is becoming the central  hub of how you communicate.  It's is easy for this inbox to fill up but it's also easy to get control of it.  Like anything, you do need to set aside time to make this happen and like most things you do need have a system or process in place to keep it under control.  Here are 10 key points to help you start taking control of that ever-growing inbox.

1. LIMIT CONVERSATION:  DO be concise.  DON'T extrapolate no matter how much of a comedian you think you are or how irritated you may be about the subject.
2. INCLUDE ACTIONS:   DO communicate "action steps" first.  DON"T leave directives for the end or embedded somewhere in the email where they may get lost.
3. INFO ONLY:  DO use "FYI" for emails that have no actionable information.  DON'T overuse FYI...be sure the receiver really needs/wants to receive your email and others will begin to do the same to you.
4. ORDER:  DO number your questions/requests/points.  DON'T be so overly verbose that the receiver misses out on the message you are trying to send.
5. TIME:  DO be sure to include deadlines where appropriate which is most of the time.  DON'T perpetuate an open ended conversation.
6. CHRONOLOGICAL vs. PRIORTY:  DO prioritize items based up importance and due date.  DON'T allow the chronological format of your inbox define when items get addressed.  It's okay to say you'll get to it later. Try setting the order of email the sort by date with most recent email at the bottom.
7. NO "THANK YOU"s:  DO be sure to send thank you emails and show good email etiquette.  DON'T automatically reply "Thank you" as way to close a conversation.  Include comments like "no response necessary" or "no need to reply" to reduce the amount of unnecessary email you receive back
8. MAKE THE CALL TO "REPLY ALL" :  DO be sure that only those who need to receive your message are on the email distribution list.  DON'T "reply all" unless requested to do so or you absolutely must.
9. FILE IN FOLDERS:  DO take advantage of creating folders to store and manage you emails based upon subject matter.  DON'T leave emails in your inbox unless they have not been read or require attention.
10. UNSUBSCRIBE:  DO take 30 minutes or so to unsubscribe to emails you really don't need.  DON'T sign-up to receive newsletters or emails unless it's pertinent to your life at the moment. (e.g. travel destination, college application, buying a car, etc.) Remove your subscriptions when you no longer need it.  For further information on protecting your email address from SPAM click here.

The next steps to controlling your inbox is to schedule time to clean it out, create folders and remove unnecessary subscriptions.  If you don't put time on your calendar now it will never happen.  Don't let yourself down!  Once that's done you can begin implementing the strategies mentioned above and enjoy and much tamer inbox.

Good luck!