Quick Notes: Are Your Email Categories Out of Control?

You may zero your inbox on a regular basis, especially if you've joined my email blitz. Congratulations. Now roll up your sleeves.

You see, shoving your emails into categories, while it may clear your inbox, doesn't make your email functional any more than a golden ring in its nose won't makes a pig less of a swine.  To get your email account to work for you instead of against you, tackle each category as it comes up, following a set schedule (see mine, below).  Here's the system I use:

Delete every unopened email you can. This is easier if your email settings allow you to see the first part of the email. Targeted items might include outdated offers, educational materials older than a date decide upon and items of limited interest to you.
Move any misfiled emails to their proper folders.
Remove all stars from the emails in your folder.
Now,  open and dispatch items, starting from the newest and working backwards to the oldest. Delete as many emails as you can in this process. Star anything you can't delete. When you've gone through all emails in a category, you can return to these starred items.  For now, don't let them slow you down. Whenever you encounter an email you need to keep, just star it and move on.
If your category has many files in it, you probably won't be able to deal with all of them in one sitting. When you return, deal with everything above the starred emails and then continue to work backwards until you come to the last items.
At some point you'll be left with only starred items. Look through them to see if you can delete any of them now. You can either choose to keep them starred and accessable in your email account or move them to files on your computer or in online storage. You'll want to keep anything important in storage more secure than an email account.

Email Blitz:

Go through your Inbox and delete everything you can. Focus on deleting rather than responding to emails. Don't let yourself follow sidetracks.
Brainstorm to determine the email categories you actually need. Remember, less is more! Assign a monthly day/week to go through each category file. Enter this as a code right into your category description in your email account, like this: M3 – Education means you will go through your Education Category on the 3rd Monday of the month.
Manage your category emails.
Store anything important in storage more secure than an email account.

© 2010 Janalyn Voigt

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