How to Keep Your Inbox Empty… Clean Out Your Inbox Week Chat #1
This post was written by Marsha Egan
Posted Under: Email Productivity Tips and Solutions
Posted Under: Email Productivity Tips and Solutions
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“Welcome everyone to our international twitter chat on email productivity! #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan Hi I am here on a rainy evening in Dorset. #emptyinboxchat
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“I am honored to be sharing this chat with Monica Seeley, the @emaildoctor, from Dorset, UK. #emptyinboxchat
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“Welcome from me too. The rules are simple, if you post a question can you preface with Q and a number. #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan Thank you I am honoured too to be sharing with the USA’s leading expert. #emptyinboxchat
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“@emaildoctor Flattery will get you everywhere! #emptyinboxchat
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“We have a few people who owned up to have over 1,000 emails in their inbox today! #emptyinboxchat
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“OK, I’ll start. Q1. Why should we be concerned with e-mail and inbox productivity? #emptyinboxchat
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“A1 – its all about productivity. In the UK we estimate people lose about 21 days per person per yr tho email misuse. #emptyinboxchat
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“A1 The more productive we can be, the more effective we can be. Emailing habits sap productivity more than people realize. #emptyinboxchat
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“A1 and then there is the time lost through email overload stress and errors as you reply too quickly. #emptyinboxchat
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“A1 Basex, a research firm, estimates $900 mill of productivity is lost yearly due to e-mail misuse .InboxDetox.com #emptyinboxchat
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“I want to archive or move to folders half my inbox as my pc is becoming slow to start up as I hoard too many emails #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan Q2 Please describe top 3 email misuse issues? #emptyinboxchat
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“@lornacampbell Hi Lorna, great goal. You can save emails as PST files not the best or use a cloud based service. #emptyinboxchat
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“A2. One of the biggest time sappers is allowing your email to interrupt you all day. Peeps are getting > 100 msgs- #emptyinboxchat
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“A2 By taking control and eliminating e-mail interruptions, most people can reclaim an hr or more per day of productivity #emptyinboxchat
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“@ldgcoach A2. Two Key time wasters: a) checking each new email as it arrives. b) handling the same email multiple times. #emptyinboxchat
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“Interesting as Marsha and I are the on opposite side of the Altantic but both cite checkin new mail as top time waster. #emptyinboxchat
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“A2 Another is using inboxes as makeshift “to do” lists, scrolling up and down 2 find work 2 do. Wasteful! #emptyinboxchat
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“@ldgcoach Q2 the 3rd top time waster is sending unneccessary emails eg ‘Thanks’ #emptyinboxchat
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“What makes the biggest, quickest difference to clean up your inbox? What would be your top tip? #emptyinboxchat
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“A2. It takes the average person an average of 4 minutes to recover from any interruption. These interruptions are COSTLY! #emptyinboxchat
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“Make it Q3 @lornacampbell: What makes the biggest, quickest difference to clean up your inbox? What would be your top tip? #emptyinboxchat
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“A3 Top tip for cleaning up your inbox is to move EVERY item elsewhere. Do. Delete, Defer. Delegate. File. #emptyinboxchat
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“@lornacampbell re hording – its a real female trait. Want a missing email – ask a woman! #emptyinboxchat
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“@lornacampbell here are my suggestions. I move all the emails from last year/week out of the inbox to a folder. #emptyinboxchat
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“A1.3 Mastering excellent e-mail productivity habits is a business winning strategy b/c yu have the edge over the competition #emptyinboxchat
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“With every item, Do. Delete, Defer. Delegate. File. BUT don’t delay the decision… #emptyinboxchat
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“A3. When you “defer”, drag and drop the message to a folder named “action”. Then set a reminder for when u need to work it #emptyinboxchat
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“A3 Emptying your inbox doesn’t mean WORKING every item, it just means SORTING msgs so they can be handled with priority. #emptyinboxchat
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“A3 Set a reminder 2 go in and grab that item u dragged, then LET the reminder remind u. U’ll know where to find it. #emptyinboxchat
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“A3. Many peeps are afraid that if moved out of the inbox, they will forget them… #emptyinboxchat
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“A3. u won’t forget. U’ll have a new habit of relying on your reminders rather than an overflowing inbox. #emptyinboxchat
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“@lornacampbell A3 Now review each new email which arrives and give it a priority high;med;low. #emptyinboxchat
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“@lornacampbell A3 once prioritised: for Low-stop them coming:Med-divert to folder for reading later. High-use Marshas’a 4Ds #emptyinboxchat
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“@EmailDoctor Q4 Define email “hoarding” please? Even if an email is filed, isn’t that still hoarding? #emptyinboxchat
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“@ldgcoach Q4 in my book yes! Need to do regular email housekeeping. Delete out of date emails (eg meeting tme). #emptyinboxchat
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“Q4. I delete emails when they reach a certain age. Newsletters I’ve read get deleted after 30 day. I clean house on Mondays #emptyinboxchat
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“@AskTim Hi Tim, great email best practice. Did you ever need any of those old emails? #emptyinboxchat
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“@EmailDoctor Once in a very great while, I wish I had an old email, but that’s the exception, not the rule. #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan @EmailDoctor Q5. Best tips to manage multiple emails- biz, 1 personal, 1 journals/newsletters/subscriptions) #emptyinboxchat
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“A4. Hoarding is a state of mind. 2 peeps can have the same number of emails saved, and one is a hoarder and one isn’t #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan @EmailDoctor Q5. Make that 2 biz, 1 personal, 1 subs/newsltr/journals email addresses to manage. Ideas? #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan Re: A5 Yes, I agree. In my case, four would have been a good place to stop — but wasn’t
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“@EmailDoctor Plus, if you feel you might want them later, you can always archive them as Word documents, then delete. #emptyinboxchat
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“@ldgcoach A5 best to manage multiple accounts is either through aggregatory software eg Gmail & have them all go to 1 place. #emptyinboxchat
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“@ldgcoach A5 an other option is be selective about how you use each account: eg newsletters only to one account etc. #emptyinboxchat
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“A5 I find it ironic that peeps “save” a high # of items in their inboxes so they won’t lose them, but they still do! #emptyinboxchat
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“A5 Leaving 250 msgs in ur inbox is like having 250 papers in no files strewn over ur desk with no organization. #emptyinboxchat
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“A5. 1) It increases your stress level. 2) It becomes easy to miss or forget something important. #emptyinboxchat
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“A5 Nothing like opeining ur email in the AM and seeing those 300+ items that you won’t get done that day. Talk about stress! #emptyinboxchat
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“A5 An overflowing inbox is a poor excuse for a to-do list #emptyinboxchat
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“Here’s a thought – if you don’t let ur kids go to bed b4 they put their toys away, why not apply same 2 ur inbox @ day end? #emptyinboxchat
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“Monica, we promised lotsa email tips – what say you from the other side of the pond? #emptyinboxchat
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“Tip: One of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of e-mail you receive is to pick up the phone more. #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan @AskTim – its often managers that cause their teams the most grief through email mis-use (eg cc’d emails) #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan Ok two of my other top tips: keep tabs on key emails needing action: drag and drop to create calendar reminder #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan top tip 2 turn of the new mail pinger and instaed check at regular intervals. #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan My personal blog is timdodgestories.com. #emptyinboxchat
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“Never heard it called a pinger – is that UK speak? #emptyinboxchat
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“#emailtip: Write very short e-mail msgs. W/ 70% of e-mail readers skimming msgs, the less u write, the more they’ll read. #emptyinboxchat
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“#emailtip: Break up your messages into no more than 3 sentence paragraphs, preferably 2. Make it EZ 4 peeps 2 read ur msgs. #emptyinboxchat
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“Yes, its a big thank you too from my side of the pond. You have added to the knowledge bank and challenged us too. #emptyinboxchat
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“When ur inbox is empty, go to inboxdetox.com/blog/inbox-… and click “like” to let us know, get a gift! #emptyinboxchat
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“@MarshaEgan more tips on my daily blog and monthly on my ebriefing see mesmo.co.uk. Links on next post How about u? #emptyinboxchat
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