Simple Wisdom Tip #7: Managing Email. It is possible?

One of the greatest challenges today is managing email.  We are being inundated with it.  In his best-selling book, Getting Things Done, David Allen offers some excellent suggestions, including:

1. Get your in box to zero.  Really?  Yes.  While challenging, it is such a cleansing feeling when you get there.  Many folks use their in boxes as a to-do list and this is a bad idea.  One sees all this “clutter” everyday.
2. Move all the emails that can’t he handled upon first reading into a subfolder entitled @ACTION which puts it at the top of the subfolders alphabetically.  Then, and this is important, write/type those items onto a Next Actions list so you don’t lose track of them (e.g., Email Bob first draft of XWY proposal by the 17th).
3. When you send an email and need a response, copy yourself and pop that email into a subfolder entitled @WAITING FOR that will appear right under the @ACTION folder.  Then, write/type those items onto a Waiting For list and review it periodically (Sally re: final date for the Gala).

These simple suggestions can make your email world simpler and better.  Want to know more.  Let’s talk.