I was facing the same problem all year long – more than 50-70 emails a day to sort through, another 50+ to send out. We manage a multi-national group so the stuff is pouring in literally ’round the clock. And the emails aren’t just quick things to reply to and be done with. Almost everyone is like a major ongoing issue.

I see the Inbox as a to-do list. If something doesn’t get filed away from Inbox, then it hasn’t been answered or dealt with and therefore stays in Inbox. Similarly, if something is in Inbox, then I will definitely answer it at some point (I tell all my collegues who stop me in the hallways screaming this and that information to me to just send me a quick email. It’s the only way they can guarantee I’ll answer…)

I started making project/issues folders immediately and once I answered something important from Inbox, I’d sort it in those folders, kind of like in GTD. This works very well, and is better than sorting via “sender” as I see many people doing.

Soon, however, I still couldn’t keep up with the Inbox list (couldn’t get on top of issues quickly enough), and was getting pretty depressed and teed off to see that damn inbox growing so much. So now once a week, if my Inbox is more than 30 emails long, I go ahead and file into the project folders, and I create an email to myself with a list of un-answered issues with reference to the project folders containing supporting emails. This way, my Inbox still carries a memo of all the unanswered to-do things, but it doesn’t look like the mountain of mails to sort through.

Ok, this works for a load of 50 emails/day. I don’t think this will work for the guys above receiving 300+/day (!). That’s insane.

What I do is very simple.

I created rules with Outlook that allow selections like mails to me or just CC, then rules based upon the sender, size, specific words, etc..and to be honest, although I get around 300 a day I can handle it.

Love your pictures and the tatooh!

Henk-Jan

I was facing the same problem all year long – more than 50-70 emails a day to sort through, another 50+ to send out. We manage a multi-national group so the stuff is pouring in literally ’round the clock. And the emails aren’t just quick things to reply to and be done with. Almost everyone is like a major ongoing issue.

I see the Inbox as a to-do list. If something doesn’t get filed away from Inbox, then it hasn’t been answered or dealt with and therefore stays in Inbox. Similarly, if something is in Inbox, then I will definitely answer it at some point (I tell all my collegues who stop me in the hallways screaming this and that information to me to just send me a quick email. It’s the only way they can guarantee I’ll answer…)

I started making project/issues folders immediately and once I answered something important from Inbox, I’d sort it in those folders, kind of like in GTD. This works very well, and is better than sorting via “sender” as I see many people doing.

Soon, however, I still couldn’t keep up with the Inbox list (couldn’t get on top of issues quickly enough), and was getting pretty depressed and teed off to see that damn inbox growing so much. So now once a week, if my Inbox is more than 30 emails long, I go ahead and file into the project folders, and I create an email to myself with a list of un-answered issues with reference to the project folders containing supporting emails. This way, my Inbox still carries a memo of all the unanswered to-do things, but it doesn’t look like the mountain of mails to sort through.

Ok, this works for a load of 50 emails/day. I don’t think this will work for the guys above receiving 300+/day (!). That’s insane.