4 Easy Steps to Inbox Control

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I was taking the Over-Connected Challenge, partly inspired by two bloggers I read, Chris Brogan and Beth Kanter. Day one, I conquered my RSS reader. It is still a work in progress. I have it pared to 34 blogs and about 20 URLs. I am aiming for less than 20 blogs. The purpose is to pay attention to only those things that make my life/job better. Less is more. Complexity is a distraction that leads to poor decision making. It's kind of like a New Year's resolution in July.

Next, I wanted to de-clutter and streamline my Inbox. So, I enlisted the help of a professional--my daughter. She is an aspiring novel writer and is a big blogger--maintaining three blogs with lots of followers in addition to holding down a part-time job. She knows what she's doing. So, thanks to her advice and the motivation of having more time and less to do, I am taking these four easy steps to InBox freedom.

1. Sync all your email accounts into one
I have four personal email accounts and eight at work (related to various department twitter feeds and Facebook pages)--do you think that's too many? All but one of them are POP3 accounts that I didn't know could be easily synced all into one account and still maintain their unique addresses. I'm sure you all know this already, but it was news to me. So, under the watchful eye of my daughter, I amassed all the accounts together and can now control them all from one screen. Ah--the relief.

2. Establish an email file system
This step I had already done with each individual email account, but now I could make individual files for each email account I was managing in the one inbox. Next, I made sub folders inside each account folder. Again--a huge lifesaver for finding and storing messages. Don't forget to label in a logical, understandable manner and don't make more than a half dozen or so sub folders. Archive messages after a month. Outlook, GMail, Hotmail and Yahoo all have extensive filing systems for messages and for contacts.

3. Set up a management system for your contacts
I admit this is going to take a while. I had many duplicate addresses in my four personal email accounts and decided not to duplicate where I didn't need to. This meant assigning a specific purpose to each email account, something I already informally did anyway.

As an example, I use my old hotmail account for managing purchases, collecting receipts, airline tickets, hotel reservations, shopping, etc. This is my personal junk mail account. But, it also has all the old contacts that I used to send personal email to from that account. That needs changing and I'll have to move those addresses to the appropriate accounts. My GMail account has become my personal account (I have two of these, one for consulting, one for my non-work life). I am in the process of doing the same for contacts there. I also have an account at work which I do a lot of personal emailing from, so there is some contact spill-over there. The most important thing is to tackle it a piece at a time until the project is done.

4. Be Bold! Don't be afraid to delete, unsubscribe and block
This specific suggestion came from Beth Kanter in her new book, Networked Non-Profit. Instead of just deleting messages I don't want to read because I'm in a hurry, I am now taking a few moments to unsubscribe (if that is available) to their email feeds--you know all those "newsletters" you have to subscribe to when you buy stuff online. It only takes a few seconds in most cases. The unsubscribe link is usually hidden down on the bottom of the email in very fine print. If it is another "you won 500 million dollars in a lottery in Africa" message, I just block the address or "mark as junk mail". I always cruise my junk mail folder before emptying just in case there is something there I need. When I do this, I sort the emails first by "from" as this makes it a lot easier to see to read the senders quickly. I also regularly delete bounce backs I get from distribution lists.

So there you have it--four steps to Inbox freedom. Do you have any suggestions for making email less time-consuming?