What does your email inbox look like?
Does it hold just a the latest incoming messages? Or do you use it as a storage place for hundreds or thousands of email messages?
If the latter, how do you ever find the message you want? And how long does it take you? In fact which of these messages will you ever want again?
Why do so many of us store so many emails in our inbox?
Often the reason is simply that dealing with the inbox is just too overwhelming to think about. So we just let the messages build up and up. We delete a few each day – but we don’t delete as many as arrive each day. So the number continues to grow till it gets to the point where you simply can’t face dealing with them because you think it will take too much time. Who wants to spend hours cleaning out the inbox?
This reminds me of a client whose desk closely resembled a large rubbish pile. Much of what was on and around his desk probably was – it hadn’t always been that way but as time went on a lot of the ‘stuff’ just stayed there. Jack confided in me that he really couldn’t face dealing with it because he didn’t want to give up a whole day one weekend cleaning up. I told him that wasn’t necessary. He looked somewhat stunned. It was going to take him hours so how else would he be able to clean up his desk.
I introduced Jack to my 15 minute action plan. I told him to put some blocks of 15 minutes into his diary each week and take that time to tackle one part of his messy desk space. I helped him to decide on a time each week that would work for him without interruptions from clients or colleagues.
I didn’t hear f
rom Jack for a couple of weeks so I sent him an encouraging email to ask him how his 15 minutes were working out. Again I didn’t hear back A week later I sent him another encouraging email. Still nothing. One day I was passing his office so popped in – and was delighted to see the difference in his desk. Not perfect – but hey – he could see it and find what he needed.
It’s the same with your email. Use my action plan to empty your email inbox. Set aside 15 minutes each day for a week – and see what a difference it makes. You won’t get bored and you will delete hundreds of messages that you no longer need.