Email Inbox Overflowing?

Picture the Scene: You've got thousands of email messages in what you lovingly call your Inbox. And you're not exaggerating about the number! No matter what you do, you can't get through them, plus you can never seem to find what you need and when you need it. The idea is to make your inbox user-friendly and not overwhelming. If the emails just sit there without being acted upon and you can't find them when you look for them, it's costing you time and money. The first thing you should do is carefully scroll through all of the emails in your inbox and get a good idea what different types of emails are there. For example:

• My E-zine (of course)
• Client emailsn
• Advertisementsn
• Junkn
• Personaln
• Ordersn
• Bills

And so on, you get the idea. The next step is to decide which emails:

• need action by you.
• are waiting for an action by someone else.
• need to be kept, but are archival.
• need to be saved, but only for a short while, just in case (maybe a sale or coupon from a company you regularly buy from).
• need to just be deleted because you don't need them at all.

And so on, you get the idea. Lastly, you need to make folders in your email program that you will sort the emails into. The trick here is to do this in such a way that they are not 'out of site, out of mind'. This might mean planning time every day or week to get into the folders or even putting a reminder on your calendar. You have to decide what fits your life and schedule. Once you do this for a while it will become a habit. The trick is to find what works for you so it is not such an overwhelming task. Email CAN be your friend! I promise! Happy Organizing!