Mailbox Triage
How To Deal With Lots of Email
A lot of us get so much email that it's very easy to become overwhelmed and lose track what's going on in our email. The technique described here is a sort of mailbox "triage", a way to help you keep on top of what's happening in your inbox without you having to attend to it every moment of every day.
Much of this information comes from “The Inbox Makeover” in the June 2005 issue of MacWorld, pg. 52-53.
Here are a few basic ideas for aiding in the organization and handling of your email:
Start by stripping your email directory structure down to basic folders, each defined by the type of action the messages contained within dictate:
- Inbox – For unread and unprocessed items only.
- Respond – For items that require short responses (5 minutes or less for each item).
- Action – Store email here that requires more than a 5-minute response. (In depth answers, research-related stuff, etc.
- Hold – For items you’ll want to close within a few days. Prune this folder weekly.
- Waiting – Items that require action when more information is received back from the sender.
- Archive – All future reference material. All subfolders and further organization can be done under this folder, but too many folders can become a drain on the Exchange servers.
- Trash – For SPAM, and stuff you need to get rid of. Junk may be redirected in here as well if you wish, but many times one might wish to ensure an item has not been flagged as junk by mistake. Having a separate junk folder might be beneficial in these cases.
Some personal retraining will be required, but very few messages generally require an immediate response. Instead of checking mail every 2 minutes, set your mail client to only check your messages once an hour, and then quickly perform triage on your inbox for 8-10 minutes per hour rather than addressing items as they trickle in over the course of the day. If a message requires action, either perform that action at the time you check your messages, or file it into the appropriate folder for later action. Do not let unprocessed mail stay in your inbox, as it gets messy very quickly.
Address any SPAM/Junk as it comes in. If it can be deleted, do so.
Empty your Deleted Items folder daily. This will help keep your mailbox size under control.
