Have you ever opened your email inbox and then groaned as you read the volume of messages?
One complaint many business operators, managers, and N-F-P volunteers make is about the numerous emails they receive. Life is busy without the endless stream of emails, often having nothing to do with the day-to-day running of the organization.
You ask for one downloaded report from a specific website, and suddenly you are inundated with emails from that company providing 'offers'. You volunteer and take on a position within a not-for-profit organization and again, you become overwhelmed with emails.
How do you manage the volume and work out what is necessary to respond to?
You may like to consider having sub-folders within your email inbox where you quickly look over emails and then assign them to the appropriate sub-folder in order of importance.
For example, you may choose to have an "Action Now" sub-folder, or several project folders. There are many ways to organize your inbox so that you are not overwhelmed.
- Quickly scan through your inbox.
- Place emails into sub-folders according to the importance of responding. What do you need to respond to today, and what can wait until tomorrow, or be actioned later?
- create a list (either paper or digital) if you find this helpful, to tick off or remind yourself.
- unsubscribe from digital newsletters, catalogs, campaigns, etc that you are no longer interested in.
- every now and then do a thorough clean out of your inbox. You may like to file important emails, but deleting out from your email system will assist in only keeping what is important.
