When I walked into my office on January 4, I found 194 unread messages in my e-mail inbox. During the Christmas-New Year break, I had steadfastly stayed away from my e-mail. These were the consequences. As well as the 194 new messages, there were 368 old messages, sitting there making my inbox seriously obese.
By afternoon I could not send any more messages because of size restrictions of my corporate e-mail. After spending more than five hours emptying my inbox, I added to my New Year's resolutions, swearing to leave my office every evening with zero mails in my inbox.
These days, much of our lives revolve around e-mail (the rest is spent trapped in meetings, but more about that in a future article).
My 70- year-old mother can't live without checking her inbox at least twice a day. She gets about 10 messages a day and she's retired, so for her, it's manageable.
But what about those of us who get more than 100 messages per day and still have a full-time job to do? How do we prevent the e-mail beast from taking over and controlling our lives?
I have a four-step plan for gaining control over my e-mail:
--Separate work and life
I have separated my work and personal e-mails. For years, I have had Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, Zmail … you name it and I've had it. And personal and work messages were mixed up in all of them. Not in 2010. Henceforth, life is separate from work.
--Intuitive filing system
I have created an intuitive nest of folders in each mailbox. At work, I have folders for brands, people and projects, with subfolders under each for key topics.
At home, there are folders for friends, family, banking, hobbies, and so on. If an e-mail can't be filed in my current system, I will delete it.
An intuitive filing system makes filing and finding a breeze and is a huge enabler in controlling the beast.
--One-touch policy for all
I will touch every e-mail only once. Once opened, I will do at least two of three things - read, reply, file or trash. There are some messages that need to be deferred and don't fall into this category. Ideally, these should be less than 10 per cent of all messages. For deferred messages, you can create a special folder and set a time limit for response.
--Actively prevent clutter
I actively follow a "send less to get less" policy. I never forward chain mails, no matter what the threat to my health or happiness. I don't click on Reply-To-All unless it's absolutely essential and I don't let e-mail conversations continue for more than two rounds.
I have set a limit of five websites where it comes to subscription mail. If there's a new site that is really interesting, then something else must go. Make this choice based on what you really like to follow and how much you can read. File the most interesting stuff and trash the rest.
My New Year has started on a rather optimistic note. It has been a few weeks now and my in-box has no messages as I send this article to my editor. How about yours?
Umesh Phadke is general manager of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in Thailand. He may be contacted at phadke.u@gmail.com.
