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Inbox Hack: Going from 5K to 30 in :30

As a productivity consultant specializing in helping business professionals improve time-management skills, I’ve seen inboxes approaching six figures. Although this may seem like a lost cause, one client was able to go painlessly, and without kicking, from 29K to 5 emails in one productivity session. You can produce impressive numbers similar to this by following one simple rule:

Separate Action Emails from Reference Ones

Using the image below as a guide, begin to think of your email area in two parts:

1. ACTION: the inbox – where emails requiring action are stationed including

  • New emails you need to open & process
  • Opened emails that require action

2. REFERENCE: the personal folders – where emails no longer requiring action, but need to be kept for reference, are stationed

email inbox separating action from reference

With this rule, I bet you can go from roughly 5K to 30 in about a half an hour…without too much suffering. Here’s how:

  1. Realize you have a jumbled mixture of emails, not at all organized, sitting in your inbox.
  2. Understand all I want you to do is to move that jumbled mixture across the line that divides your inbox from your personal folder area.
  3. Get a grip. Reassure yourself crossing this line means nothing. You can continue to sort that mixture according to From, Subject or Received when you need to find something.
  4. Create a “General Reference” folder in your folder list. (Other names clients have given this folder are Everything Else & Dump Bucket. What name is meaningful to you?)
  5. Select everything in your inbox three weeks or older & move them all to the General Reference Feel free to adjust the timing to two weeks, but don’t adjust in the other direction. Do not organize those emails by filing them into additional folders. It’s not worth it! You’re currently getting along without that organization living out of your inbox, so why apply the organization when you know you can live without it?!
  6. Go through remaining emails, filing things not requiring action into the General Reference folder and leaving all those requiring action in your inbox.
  7. Celebrate and rejoice in knowing you can now see all the things that require your attention.

If you’d like a little more personal attention to make this happen, reach out to us @ 312.765.7550 or info@sparkproductivity.com. We’d be thrilled to help you improve your email time management, and create greater productivity in your workday.

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