For your next 6 blog posts we’ll look at 6 short, easy-to-follow tips that might help you if you’ve got an Email Beast crowding your mind (and your Inbox!).
When email was introduced to the workplace it was intended to help us work more effectively, but the reality is that it’s taken over many of our lives and complicated our working life. If you are like me, you probably have a love/hate relationship with technology – on the one hand I love to embrace it and am awestruck by its ever-enhancing capabilities, but on the other hand there are days when I feel like ripping my hair out. So this new series is designed to give you a few pointers to reduce email stress.
Let’s start with decluttering your electronic workspace.
A cluttered inbox is as stress-creating as a cluttered desk. And we all know how a messy desk or office makes us feel. If you want an uncluttered mind try emptying your inbox.
I know all too well that sinking feeling you can get when you log on and there are so many emails in your inbox that you don’t even know where to start. My assistant Sanchia tells of getting over 100 a day in her former career, and of bosses who had well over 2,000 unread emails! Boy, I can only imagine the heavy weight of having that on my shoulders.
When we have that many unread emails, most with an action point to be done, it can feel utterly overwhelming. We often begin to feel we’re mismanaging our workload. Guilt becomes a constant nagging companion – one we try to silence – and stress is the outcome!
If any of this sounds familiar, how about giving yourself 10 mins out of your day to trash some of the now-redundant emails.
One quick way to do it is to click on the ‘From’ or the ‘Subject’ pane at the top of whichever folder you’re in. Everything then sorts according to what you’ve clicked on. For instance, if you’ve clicked the ‘From’ panel everything from the one person is together. The obsolete items stick out like clothes in a nudist colony. And deleting a whole load of garbage feels powerful!
Have fun dumping and next time you hear from me you’ ll be in a better position to really start using your inbox to your advantage!
