Woohoo! I’m writing today using the time I usually use to file email.
Okay, let’s back it up a couple of steps.
Back in summer 2011, I took a job in which i receive about 100 emails a day. I gather from my colleagues that you pretty much have to decide early on if you are going to clear your email inbox every day, or just let it archive off. Some of the troubles I have gotten into can be traced back to missing an email, so I decided that clearing my email box each day was the only way to go.
By clearing my inbox, I mean filing the emails into their folder, tag them for priority, and answer the ones that can be answered right away.
I have read the healthcare cio’s take on email, although I only remember a little of the guidance. He gets hundreds of emails; one of the rules is to route the ones that he is CC’d on to a cc folder, where he may or may not get around to reading them. I tried this and was in trouble on the very same day.
So I started filing the emails. I filed them so i could get to them easily later. For example, my Operations functional area had subfolders for each system in my portfolio, and subfolders under that for topics associated with with larger systems.
So I ended up with a whole bunch of folders, and a standing multi-hour commitment to filing email. I started being suspicious of this approach when I found myself spending tangible time navigating to folders into which to dispense the email.
So here’s what I did: I reasoned that I was spending more time sorting on the front end than I was saving at message retrieval time. After all, I have retrieval tools, including queries and filters, that will help me retrieve specific messages from a pile, but no tools to help me move email to the right folder. So closed all the subfolders in my hierarchy, and now store data only in the root folders. there are fewer than 10 of these.
So I spend no time finding the right folder. I spend a lot less time trying to decide which folder is correct. And that has added real time back to my day. Hallelujah!
And, I am using a new approach to retaining information that I really don’t want to lose. I will write about that next time…
You seem to be in good company–note the first item here.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/01/new_year_s_resolutions_for_technology_in_2013.html
I am somewhere in between, having dumped my inbox (7700 messages) into essentially archive folders by year (virtually all 2011 or 2012–I guess the rest are in some Outlook archive folder.) And now trying to stay inbox zero. So far, almost 24 hours of success–woo hoo!
My personal mail box is still a disaster, which is funny because it could and should probably be nuked with impunity.
The approach espoused by the Slate guy would not work here at all. I don’t really see how it would work for anybody except maybe the queen and Mark Cuban.