Two roles I’ve done, my current job and an operations team leader role have both been email intensive. Currently I receive about 80 emails a day and it is incredibly difficult to keep track of what’s going on and what tasks I am meant to be doing. It was a constant haze and I felt like a deer in headlights! I tried many of the standard methods to keep myself organised and on top of things, everything from keeping a daily planner to using Outlook tasks but given time it would just grow like an out of control weed.

I’ve implemented two systems to keep track of my to do list and emails, in this post I will first cover off how I am managing my flood of email. It’s important to understand that not every system works perfectly for all, you really need to do a bit of research on what methods people are using and adopt one that suits you best based on your tools and how you work.

Upon my quest to find a solution to my problem I came across what is popularly known as ‘Inbox Zero’. The creator behind this method is Merlin Mann, the mind behind 43folder.com. After reviewing a number of his articles on this and feedback from others I implemented a number of suggestions.

I setup a number of search folders in Outlook to list emails based on their category, I then created three categories – Defer, FYI, Waiting Response. When receiving an email, I would quickly glance at it. If it is going to take more than 5 minutes to process the email, I would place it in the Defer category. If the email contained information I might need to know for the future, I would place it in the FYI category. All other email I would process on the spot. Once the email had either been processed or categorised I would move it out of the inbox into a folder called Archive. This allows for me to keep my inbox clean and I would then set time aside each day to go through my Defer emails and action those, generally at the end of the day when the daily grind slows.

I started to have issues with losing track of email conversations, I would reply or send an email to someone for which I needed a response and then completely forget about it. This is where the Waiting Response search folder comes in, I would categorise my sent email so I could track what is waiting on a response and if I receive nothing in an expected time frame, I would follow up with the person again. On top of this, I also have a number of Outlook rules setup. Anything I am CC’d on goes to it’s own folder immediately, if I’m CC’d then it’s obviously not as important as emails sent directly to me…assuming people are following email etiquette. I’m also a member of a number of email distribution lists so I have setup folders to filter this email directly to it.

I started to get really annoyed with having to click emails and drag them to the Archive folder so I did a bit of research and found a site (http://verychewy.com/archive/2006/04/12/outlook-macro-to-move-an-email-to-folder.aspx) which offered scripting examples to setup a macro to automatically do this task. I then assigned this macro to a button in a toolbar, all I have to do is select the email and click a button and it automatically moves to the Archive folder. Excellent! The less mouse work that needs to be done, the better. And how many of us have accidently dragged an email to the wrong folder? Annoying!

So this is how I am dealing with my flood of email. It’s also important to watch how much time you’re spending in Outlook, I would live in it for majority of my day. I then started to get into a routine of checking it only at certain times so I could concentrate on other things and after all, if something is important a phone call is in order, not an email. After a period of time the schedule was sacked however now I am checking Outlook at certain intervals, just not on an exact schedule. It was sufficient enough to break my addiction to Outlook.

My other tool is http://www.toodledo.com. It is an online task management system based on David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”. When I receive emails in Outlook if it is something that requires a bit of time to work on I will email it to a specific Toodledo.com address and it will add a task automatically. I can even add parameters to the subject to setup the task e.g. where I need to be to complete this task (contexts). Any other tasks not received via email, I add automatically. Toodledo.com also has a very neat scheduler, you can enter how many working hours you have and it will prioritise your tasks and what is best to be completed in that time frame. A full task schedule can also be printed out. What I really like is the ability to have their app on my iPhone while on the go, I can quickly fire it up and see what is next on my list or I can add further tasks from a meeting for example. Some may not like to hear it’s a paid service however the fee is very small and well worth the money.

I recommend that you check out Merlin’s site as well as Toodledo.com if you face similar issues. Furthermore, David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” is a worthwhile read. It gives you insight in how to better manage your time by organising yourself and managing your tasks.