Take Back Control
One of the biggest challenges most of us face is managing email – we are inundated by the stuff and the common reaction is to leave it sitting in your inbox until you decide what to do with it. 
And then you spend hours scrolling up and down staring at it; this steals productivity from your day. I love this Wall Street Journal article that quotes Julie Morgenstern, time-management consultant: “People’s workloads are so intimidating now….You use email as an escape. It gives you a false sense of accomplishment.” One of her best ideas is to ignore email for the first hour of the morning and focus on important projects instead. This is something I started doing 2 months ago and I really noticed a big increase in my productivity. Check out the article to learn about other ways to take back control from your email.
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I make sure to keep my Inbox absolutely empty. I use a lot of folders; then, when an email comes in, I either delete it immediately, read & file, or read & move to my “action required” folder. Then at the end of each day I go through that folder and do whatever I need to do. The only emails I always respond to immediately are sales/mtg inquiries.
Renee:
That is a great system – I wish more people followed your example. I always tell clients – do the stuff that makes you money first. The rest is just filler! Thanks for sharing.
Good timing, i’ve been reminding myself all day “my inbox is not my tasklist; my inbox is not my task list”. I try to respond to emails immediately if they will take less than 2 minutes. Ones I need to think about i drag to my task button and turn into a task – then delete the email so it doesn’t haunt me.
Denise:
That is a great mantra that we should all chant every day!