Almost everyone talks about email management, as being a major challenge, but I do believe it has become such a challenge, due to people’s addiction and the desire to feel very important.

Basically, with a few suggestions and changes of your work order, it does not have to be a challenge and you will find yourself in the situation of “being in control”.

Let your software manage your inbox;

Rules, Filters and to assign colors to the important emails is crucial to success. Most email applications have a great deal of features to support email handling. Make sure that all work related emails go into the the right folder, with the right attention.

Content Related handling;

Well it should be simple, but many people does not take the right approach. Work email is work related – Private Email should not appear in the same list, and subscriptions (Newsletters and more) could by definition to a second email account (plenty of free services for this on the net).

Make sure those only relevant issues goes to your email box.  Do not believe you can mix and match (And remember, subscriptions often bring more than what you asked for, so getting adds and more into another email box is an advantage).

Time Management;

Do not jump the second an email arrives, do not respond at the same second. Take time, work your way through your email box (sometime just place it in offline mode for an hour or two) and work in a structured manner. Spend time (when travel, trains, planes are excellent places to get time for thinking) and dig into the amount of issues.

Do not open your email box, if you do not need to. If your day is scheduled with other (important tasks) then just place your email box on hold, take time, get busy / productive) and make sure that you get the true value out of your efficient work hours, and spend the time on emails to fill out time (in between actions).

Remember; if the house is at fire, people will call. Everything else can be auctioned when you have the time.