2 thoughts on “My new email policy”

1. It's a good idea to do email once, or twice per day instead of all day, but I've never understood the point of "cleaning out" the inbox.

   If you let the computer do the filing, you can spend more time reading and replying. I use search folders, and message filters, and I almost never spend any time filing anything.

   Examples:

   create a folder for each mailing list, or group of mailing lists, and create a message filter that auto-files messages into those folders.

   Create a search folder that shows only the latest 15 days of the most important mailboxes.

   Create a search folder that shows only unread messages from people who you correspond frequently with

   Create a search folder that shows only unread messages older than 5 days.

   Try it out, see how you like it.

2. From the AMSTAT Statistical Consulting newsletter this month:

   Resources for Improving Your E-mail Use
   Karen Copeland, Boulder Statistics
   "A second resource related to email I came across recently in a blog. It is a website and video from a site called 43folders about what they call “Inbox Zero.” I listened to the video and cleaned out my inbox as I did down to zero messages. The site and video had great tips for releasing yourself from email overload. The website to visit is http://www.43folders.com/izero/. I will admit that over time I have not kept my inbox completely free of messages, however, the principle ideas of the Inbox Zero makes sense and has helped me to keep my inbox under control."

   Maybe something to read over… I'm not sure I love the idea, but I'm also a self-proclaimed email addict who reads email with breakfast and lunch every day and enjoys it.

Comments are closed.