However, there are ways to manage your email so that you’re more productive. We’ll explore strategies for doing this, so that you can get on with the real work at hand.

Key Points:

• Most of us feel overwhelmed by email. Although it’s a great communication tool, more often than not it’s overused. By managing it effectively, you can significantly boost your productivity.
• To gain control of your inbox, start by checking and processing email only at certain times during the day. If you’re concerned about the delayed response, let people know that you don’t check your email constantly.
• Also, try to keep your inbox as clear as possible. Organize mail using folders like “Action”, “Waiting” and “Archives”. And when you do check mail, use the two minute rule – any email that can be read and responded to in two minutes or less should be handled right then.
• You can also reduce your incoming mail by asking people to send you less, and by advocating effective email and communication strategies in your organization.

Checking Email

Checking your email regularly during the day can be an effective way to keep your inbox at manageable levels. This is so obvious, but sometimes we only check mails at the end of the day (if you don´t have a Blackberry!)

Check Email at Set Times

The constant interruption and distraction that comes from checking email can dramatically lower your productivity, so one strategy you can use is to check email only at set points during the day. For instance, you may decide that you’ll only check your email first thing in the morning, before lunch, and at the end of the day.

Here, it helps to set your email software to download messages only at certain times, so that you’re not distracted by incoming messages. If you can’t do this, at least make sure that audible and visual alerts are turned off.

When to Check Email

You can also reserve time to read and respond to email after a long period of focused work, or at the time of day when your energy and creativity are at their lowest (this means that you can do higher value work at other times). Our article, Is This a Morning Task? (members-only) will help you identify when you’re feeling least energetic, so that you can schedule time appropriately.

If you’re concerned that your colleagues, boss, or clients will be annoyed or confused that you’re not responding to their email quickly, explain that you only check email at certain times, and that they can call you or use instant messaging,  if the matter is really urgent.

Reading Email

When it comes to reading email, you can waste hours if you don’t use this time well.

The Two-Minute Rule

First, try using the “Two-Minute Rule” (a concept from David Allen, the author of “Getting Things Done”) – if the email will take less than two minutes to process (a quick read, and a short answer) then take care of it right now, even if it’s not a high priority.

Schedule Time

For emails that will take longer than two minutes to read or respond to, schedule time on your calendar, or add this as an action on your To-Do List.  Most email programs will allow you to highlight, flag, or star messages that need a response, so utilize this handy feature whenever you can.

Organizing Email

Can you imagine having an inbox with nothing in it? It almost sounds too good to be true!  Although a completely empty inbox (also called “inbox zero”) might be unrealistic for many of us, keeping our main inbox cleared can make us more organized, and help eliminate stress.

You could use broad categories titled “Action Items,” “Waiting,” “Reference,” and “Archives.” If you’re able to stay on top of your folders – particularly “Action” and “Waiting” folders – you could use them as an informal To-Do List for the day.

If four categories sounds too simplistic for your needs, you can set up a more detailed system. For instance, you could create a folder for every project that you’re working on, or have a set folder for each of your clients or sales reps.

The best approach to use can depend on how quickly you need to access a specific email. If you need instant access (for example, if clients often call you to discuss emails) you may want to file into folders. If you don’t, then desktop search may be all that you need.

Using Rules

Most email programs, such as Outlook and Gmail, allow you to establish “Rules” to help with sorting email into particular folders.

For instance, you might get several emails per day notifying you of sales that your company has made. You want to receive these, because you want to see what’s happening, but you don’t want them to clutter your Inbox.

This is where you could set up a Rule in your email program that moves emails with “Sale Notification:” in the subject line straight to the “Sales Made” folder as soon as they come in. This frees up your time from filing these emails, and allows you to keep all sales emails in one folder.

Non-Essential Email

If you regularly receive email such as newsletters, blogs and article feeds, consider having them re-routed to another email address, or use rules, so that they’re instantly delivered to a particular folder.  This will help keep your primary inbox clear, and they’ll be in one place, ready for you to read at a convenient time.

Good Team Habits

One of the best things that you can do, to limit the amount of email you need to process, is encourage your team to send you less.

For instance, if certain team members regularly send you long-winded emails, let them know. Tell them gently but firmly that because of the demand on your time, you’d appreciate emails no longer than a paragraph or two. Anything longer than that should warrant a phone call. Alternatively, they could drop by your office for a discussion.

Do you waste much time during your day due to disorganization?
Perhaps you spend 5 minutes searching for a misplaced file, another 5 looking for an email detailing an important meeting, and perhaps 10 minutes more finding today’s to-do list, lost in the piles of papers on your desk. Before you know it, you’ve spent an hour throughout the day looking for things you can’t find. And that’s just one day! Imagine how much time you’re losing each week, each month, and each year!

Many people struggle with disorganization. And, while some think they can succeed amidst the chaos, this disorganization can end up costing a high price. Disorganization can hold us back from getting the promotion we’ve always wanted. It can block our creativity, add stress to our lives, and prevent us from being as productive andeffective as we could be.

Organizing Best Practices

• Make a plan: This is so obvious, but is the most important thing to do. After that, stick to the plan!
• Use a notebook – One strategy that many organized people use is to work with a notebook. This notebook is like a “catch-all” for your thoughts and for what you do during the day.For instance, use your notebook to take notes when you’re talking with a colleague or with a client on the phone. If you’re working and need to remember to tell your boss something, write it down in your notebook. If you have a brainstorming session in the afternoon, your ideas can go in there too.The advantage of a notebook is that you capture all of your thoughts, conversations, and ideas in one place. Also, once things are written down, you don’t have to waste mental energy remembering everything!It’s helpful to start a new, dated page each day. This way, you can easily go back and find the information you need.
• Get organized during the first 15 minutes of your day – When you walk into the office in the morning, spend your first 15 minutes looking at what you need to do that day. Start with the “Next Actions” list from your Action Plan, if you have one – or make a TO-DO list, with your most important priorities at the top. This gives you a solid grasp of which tasks you need to complete first, and which you can complete later in the afternoon.During this organization time, knowing when you do your best work can also be helpful.
• Clear your desktop – Your desktop can often become a “catch-all” zone. There are old papers, future projects, files you’re currently using, and a pile of papers you simply haven’t put away yet. Although some people feel they work better with a cluttered desk, it’s distracting and inhibiting for many of us.If you want to get organized, then clearing your desktop is a smart strategy. This can be a time-consuming task, so it might be best to work on this at the end of the day or at the weekend.

Organizing Tools

We live in a time of some amazing technology. Let’s use it to get organized!

• Use digital calendars or planners – Many people use these to help organize their schedules. These can be very helpful for keeping you on task!For instance, many digital calendars, like Outlook and iCal, allow you to color-code tasks. You could use red for urgent, green for extended deadlines, and blue for low-priority tasks. Color-coding your day helps you quickly see what you need to do first.
• Use a spreadsheet to track your progress – Spreadsheets are helpful because you can use conditional formatting that alerts you when tasks are getting close to their deadlines. As a result, you can see at a glance which items are, or are not, on schedule. This is especially helpful when you’re working with a team, and when you have to be aware of people’s progress.

Organizing Tricks

• Offer yourself a reward – If you’re finding it difficult to stay organized, try offering yourself a reward. For instance, if you complete four things on your to-do list, reward yourself with a cup of coffee, or with 10 minutes of free time to surf the web.
• Use one calendar – If you enter some things in your PDA, some things on your desk planner, and some on a calendar at home, then you’re probably going to miss key appointments and tasks.
• Schedule small tasks – If a task or project requires action beforehand (like picking up bagels and coffee for the staff meeting), then schedule these related tasks into your planner as well. This helps you set aside enough time to get everything done.
• Scan your documents – If you don’t like having an office with lots of filing cabinets, then why not scan all of your documents and store them on your computer? If you have a personal assistant, this would be a great task to delegate. If not, then try scanning a few documents every day, and eventually scan all project documents over the long-term.
• Choose organizing tools that you like – Pick products that appeal to you on a visual or emotional level. For example, if you decide to start using a notebook on a daily basis, then purchase a nice one that you really like. When your tools are visually appealing and comfortable, you’re more likely to use them.

Key Points

Disorganization can cost you career advancement, decrease your productivity, and add stress to your life. Devoting time and effort to getting organized can help you tremendously in the long run.

Start by using a notebook on a regular basis to keep track of conversations, ideas, and reminders. And begin every day with a clean desk and an organized to-do list. Use technology to keep your schedule and projects running smoothly. Features like color coding and audio alarms can help you ensure that you don’t miss appointments or deadlines.

The reality is that we have more things to do and the only way to accomplish with all task is having an order.

Did you know that every minute spent in planning of the daily tasks, reduces 10 minutes  the execution of the same ones? This can represent up to 25 % of increase in your productivity. Without planning of the time, simply we are REACTING constantly to the situations that appear.

But … What can we do?!

When our day begin, let’s take a sheet and let’s write a list of all the tasks and activities that we have to do during the day (I particularly use the Microsoft Windows Notepad, but sometimes the paper is more comfortable). Once you take this habit, I recommend to you do it in the night in order to start the day straight with the execution of the tasks.

Write down everything (meetings, calls, lunches, etc.)

Once we have the list, it is important to arrange it by PRIORITY. Of course the list of tasks will be huge (do not lose hope!)

One technique is assign priorities based on the consequences of realizing or not a task. You can use A, B, C and D, to assign priorities, so:

A priority task A, it is something that we must do,  it has serious consequences not to do it. For example: To meet a client or your chief, to send a proposal or budget,  prepare a report.

A task with priority B, is a thing that we must do, but the consequences are minor. For example: to read the mails, to do a consultation to a coleague.

A task with priority C, is that don’t have impact or any consequence in our work.

A task with priority D, are tasks that WE must DELEGATE. Basically there are things that others (the people of our team) can do for us. No matter what it is anything that we could do. This is very important, since we have more time to do things that ONLY we can do and nobody more.

Ok, already we have the finished and prioritized list, logically we begin executing the tasks A and then the B, let’s never begin a task B, without all the A being finished! We have to educate ourselves to realize first these important tasks and that they have serious consequences if we don’t do them.

Then we delegate all the tasks D.

Dears. This is a self-control question, but I make sure  that it brings good results. Remember control your  time and not the other way round.