Over a 3-day span in late January I worked diligently to whittle the 1,014 emails in my Gmail inbox down to zero. I also cleaned out another 2,300+ listserv emails that were in a second folder. Whew! Since then I have managed to stay on top of my email and the reduction in psychic weight from feeling behind has been glorious. I’m now whittling down my 121 to-do items that still linger from all of those messages. Luckily not too many of them are huge items and I should halve that number in the next week or so. Sorry if you’re still waiting to hear from me!
Sanebox has been a lifesaver for me and well worth every penny. I forward emails to addresses like or or feb.9+4pm@sanebox.com and they disappear, reappearing later in my inbox only when I need them. In addition to using these addresses to schedule work tasks, I also use them in the BCC field of email messages to remind me to follow up with someone.
I also have Sanebox folders set up for each day of the week. I can just drag emails into them and they will reappear at 7am on the morning of that day. My SaneLater folder contains all of my listserv emails and messages from folks who are new contacts. I try to check this folder only once per day.
I am starting to use Trello again for my to-do items, keeping in mind that my emails should be separate from my to-do lists. I’m not there yet but I’m working on it. I also am putting to-do items directly onto Google Calendar and then doing my best to actually work on those things during the reserved times. And, finally, I’m trying to use Google Chat, Twitter, text messaging, and online communities to reduce the number of emails that I’m sending.
Wishing you productivity and serenity with your own email…
