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If you’re using your email inbox as a task list, you’re probably seeing it get out of control. Even if you’re flagging important emails and looking at your flagged email daily, are you feeling a little worn-down with how many emails you’re seeing? Seeing a long to-do list or a stack of actionable emails can leave you feeling like throwing in the towel.

You know that you can’t give up. You need to get through them because they were important enough to flag in the first place. The root of the problem is that it takes too much of your attention and decision-making skills to look at each one and determine the action needed.

Save your email as a task

In my blog post here: How to Ingrate Email with Task Management I write about integrating your email with a task manager. If you save an email as an actual task, then you can re-write the title and add notes to help you to remember what it is that you have to do. Wouldn’t it be much easier to look at a list of actionable tasks then a list of emails with vague titles?

You still may have a to-do list that’s long, but if you focus on your top 5 every day then you can whittle down your list over time. (If you list continues to grow because of too-full days, you may also want to look at delegating and outsourcing.)

Every task is an action

One great technique for a to-do list is to make every task an action. I.e., if you have an email from David titled: “Hey Robin, can we talk soon?” you need a task that’s more like: “Contact David and schedule a discussion”.

Here’s a great article about organizing your to-do list by emotion: Sort Your To-do List By Emotion. If I take the previous example and change it to this: “Contact David and schedule a discussion (Great Sense of Accomplishment)”, I would feel more motivated to get it done.

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April 15, 2016
Do You Swipe?
If you have a smartphone, you probably do. Apple’s iOS first popularized the use of swipe gestures such as swiping between app screens. In later iOS updates, Apple added more swipe gestures, such as swiping down to see notifications. Now, smartphone applications are adding their own swipe gestures, which are similar to clicking on something in a computer application and then selecting an action. But swiping is so much simpler, isn’t it?

When you think about all of the actions that you can take with an email – reply to it, forward it, delete it, archive it, move it, flag it, etc., have you ever wondered if there’s a more efficient way?

Swipe Gestures for Apple Mail

Apple, Microsoft, and lots of other application developers have been thinking about it too. Here’s what you can do now with Apple mail on your iOS 9 device:
- You can swipe on an email from left to right and mark the email as “Unread”.
- As you swipe slowly from right to left, you can select “Archive”, “Flag”, or “More…”. From “More..”, you can select “Reply All”, “Forward”, “Mark..”, “Notify Me…”, “Move Message”.
- Swiping quickly from right to left will delete the message.
If you don’t like these gestures, you can go to your Mail settings and change them.

On your Macintosh, you can swipe left on an email to delete it, or swipe right to mark it as read.

Other Applications are Going Further

Some application developers are going further. Here are a couple of examples:
- Outlook for iOS adds the ability to swipe to schedule an email. This is like a “snooze” feature for an email that you don’t have time to deal with right now.
- In Google’s Inbox app, swiping right marks the email as “Done.” Swiping left will “snooze” it, similar to Outlook’s “swipe to schedule”. Swiping down or up will close the email.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in technology was the mouse and the ability to move a cursor around the screen, click to select, and click to perform an action. In the mobile-centric 21^st century, we are moving rapidly toward an all-touchscreen world. Knowing the swipe gestures and other kinds of gestures for your favorite applications will keep you working efficiently.

Confused about how to swipe? Contact me.
April 14, 2016
How to Manage Emails and Tasks
If you’re like me, you spend a good part of the day in front of a computer. I have several to-do lists, consisting of project tasks, business tasks, and personal tasks. Throughout the day, I’m also getting phone calls and emails.

The phone calls are easy because they’re immediate.

I take notes during the call, bring up my calendar for scheduling, and then fill in my intake form with the information that I’ve written down. I can then transition to my task management tool, my project management tool, or my CRM (customer relationship management) tool. If I get the call when I’m away from the office, then I will do some of this on my mobile device and the rest when I get to my computer

Some emails are easy.

If I see any emails come in from a paying client or a potential client, I will deal with that email shortly. If those come in when I’m out of the office, I’ll respond on my mobile device.

Other emails become to-dos on their own.

There may be invitations to meetings or events or lunch. There may be clients out of the office currently and whose emails I need to follow up on later. There may be business partners sending information that I’d like to read when I have time.

Every single one of those emails becomes a task in itself. But they’re not on my to-do list, and they’re not organized into my daily blocks of time that I allocate for certain tasks. There is a risk that, by using my email inbox as another task list, there are things that won’t get done.

It may be fine for you to keep emails as tasks in your inbox. You could schedule some time every day to deal with those tasks. It’s a good idea in general to block out time every day to do email anyway – to categorize emails, archive, delete or flag. You can sort your inbox so that the flagged emails are at the top, and then spend that time dealing with them.

It’s easy to get behind with these emails tasks.

You may find yourself with a list of flagged emails that just keeps growing. They’re all important, but how do you find the time to get through them? Are they all equally important?

It may be more efficient to integrate those emails instead with whatever task management system you’re using. See my blog post here about email/task integration: How to Integrate Email with Task Management.

If you’re not using a task manager, then here’s some that you can check out:
1. Outlook
If you use Outlook for email and calendar, then it may make sense to use the built-in task manager as well. The downside to this is that you can’t quit your email program to focus on your task list. You may find that other task managers fit your needs better.
1. Google Tasks
If you use Gmail and Google Calendar, then Google Tasks may make sense for you. The interface is easy to use and it functions just fine as a straight-forward task manager.
1. Apple Reminders
Apple Reminders is another good, simple task manager, for use on Apple devices only. If you don’t need collaboration, then Apple Reminders should work for you.
1. Wunderlist
This is my choice for a task manager. I have Wunderlist installed on all of my devices so that I can sync and access my to-do list wherever I am. I can create multiple lists, sub-tasks, a “starred” list, a “today” list, and I can share lists.
1. Evernote
Evernote is more of an information organization system then a task manager. But many people like to use it for their to-do lists. You can create an Evernote Notebook for your to-dos and assign reminders for them.

Email can be a distraction in your otherwise productive day. It can be stressful to see those emails tasks piling up. You’ll need a regular routine to stay on top of those email tasks, whether it’s dealing with them as them come in, flagging them for follow-up, or integrating with your task manager.

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April 12, 2016
How to Integrate Email with Task Management

Staying on top of email chaos is not easy.

Even after you’ve followed the steps to manage your email inbox (see my blog post here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive ), you still need to “deal with” those emails that require a follow-up task. How do you make sure that you get those done, and that they don’t get lost in the daily shuffle?

The easiest way is to have a daily routine to review and act on those emails. If you flag the most important emails, you can sort your inbox by flag. You can then review those emails daily and then delete them or archive them as you finish your follow-ups.

However, a more efficient way is to merge your email with a task management system. Your emails will then become integrated with your daily to-do list.

If you’re an Outlook user, then you can use the built-in Outlook task manager.

Flagging an email in Outlook actually assigns a follow-up task. If your email account is a POP account, this is pretty straightforward: open the email and select a flag for Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, etc. If your email account is an IMAP account, you have only the option of a flag with no follow-up date. You’ll have to drag the email to Tasks (in your sidebar) and then assign a due date.

If you use Mac mail, you can drag an email to your Reminders list.

Click on the “i” at the right of the reminder, and then choose the day that you want to be reminded on.

If you’re a Gmail user, you can create a Google reminder from an email.

Open the email, click on “More”, and then select “Add to Tasks”. Your Tasks window will open in the bottom right-hand corner. You can then click on the arrow next to your new task to give it a due date. (If you use the Google Inbox app on your mobile device, then see my blog post here: How to Manage Your Gmail Inbox).

You can also integrate your email with dedicated task managers such as Wunderlist.

Here’s how it works with Wunderlist: when you’re running the app on your device and signed into your Wunderlist account, you can send emails to your Wunderlist Inbox by forwarding to me@wunderlist.com. Once the email is in your Wunderlist Inbox, you can give it a due date.

If you’re keeping your to-do list in Evernote, then I suggest creating an Evernote Notebook.

You could call it “My Tasks”, and then you can then forward emails into that notebook. (You find your Evernote email address by going to “Account Info”.) When you forward an email to your Evernote email address, you can specify a notebook by adding “@<notebook name>” to the subject line. For example, if you forward an email titled “Request for more information”, you would add your “My Tasks” notebook name to that title, so: “Request for more information @My Tasks”. If you’d like to tag the email, also add “#<tag>” to the subject line. You can then go to your Evernote app and assign a due date.

Many of us like to use our email inbox as a todo list. It’s possible to do this, particularly by using flags to prioritize, but it’s more efficient to have all of your to-dos in one place, including emails that you need to follow up on.

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April 7, 2016
How to Use Email Flagging to Prioritize
If you’ve gone through the process of email organization (see my blog post here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive), then you should have a streamlined inbox with just the most important emails. You also should have a daily routine of dealing with those emails that consists of:
1. Evaluating and Categorizing
2. Acting On, Filing, or Flagging by Priority
Flagging an email in Outlook actually assigns a follow-up task.

If your email account is a POP account, this is pretty straightforward: open the email and select a flag for Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, etc. If your email account is an IMAP account, you have only the option of a flag with no follow-up date. You can then sort your inbox by selecting “Arrange By: Flag”. (You can also look at these flagged emails in your task list.)

Gmail uses a star system to flag emails.

If you go to your Settings in Gmail, you can see which color stars you have to choose from. To assign a colored start to an email, keep clicking on the star icon next to the mail until you have the color that you want. You will have to remember what each means in terms of priority; red is typically used for highest-priority emails, then yellow, then whatever color you like. Your starred emails are groups by color under “Starred”.

Apple mail uses color-coded flags.

You can flag an email by selecting it and then selecting a color flag from the top menu. Flagging an email in Apple mail actually puts it in a separate Mailbox under “Flagged” (as well as leaving it in your Inbox.) You can rename that Mailbox to whatever you want to help you to remember what your priorities are. For example, you can rename the “Red” Mailbox to “High Priority”, the “Yellow” Mailbox to “Follow Up This Week”, etc.

Do you need help managing email? Contact me.
April 4, 2016
Four Steps to Recover from Missed Email

Well, it finally happened. Your client, or customer, or boss, or best friend feels put out or confused. That’s because you never responded to his or her email.

Why? Because you missed it. Perhaps you’re still working on your inbox organization. Or maybe you haven’t gotten around to getting organized yet. Even if you do have a handle on your inbox most of the time, there are always those times when you fall behind.

The first thing to do is to find that email and to follow up on any action.

Use the built-in search tool for your email program. You can search by sender or subject.

The next thing to do is to apologize.

Here’s a great website to help you to formulate that apology: Perfect Apology.

Hopefully, you’ve been forgiven now and you can patch things up. If it’s a client or a customer, you may have to follow up with a special offer or discount on your services. Take on some extra work if it’s your boss. If it’s a friend or family member, there’s always the old throwback of flowers and/or chocolates. Perhaps stand her or him a drink sometime.

The third step may be to make sure that important people can reach you in other ways.

We’ve all experienced times when an email never got answered. A lot of people are dealing with inbox chaos. I usually follow up with another email. If that goes unanswered within a day or two, I’ll call or text. Some prominent people who can’t stay on top of their inbox volume set up a regular Skype chat or Google Hangout with their followers.

Check out my blog post here on alternative communication methods: Communicate Like You’re a Millennial.

The last step is to get back on top of your inbox.

Be sure to read my blog post here on email management if you haven’t already: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive.

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“Drowning in Email – A Lifeline for Communications Overload”

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April 4, 2016
How to De-Clutter Your Email Inbox
If you’re like most people, you’re getting too many emails in your inbox.

An overflowing inbox can create stress and cause you worry that you’re missing important emails.

One way to reduce the number of emails going into your inbox is to unsubscribe to as many automatic emails as possible, such as the ones from shopping sites that add you to their newsletter or promotions list. However, there still may be automatic emails that you would like to receive and read when you have time. Those emails can be filtered so that they’re being saved automatically to folders that you’ve created but not cluttering up your inbox.

Filters are automatic programs that run within your email reader.

As your email arrives, the filters search for specific criteria, defined by you, and then perform a defined action based on those criteria. For example, your filter can search the “from” field for your grocery store name and then save the email to a folder that you’ve created.

I suggest creating filters for:
- Your social media notifications
- Any mail lists that you’re a member of (school, church, community organization, etc.)
- Any newsletters that you’re subscribed to.
If you use Apple Mail, you create the filters using “Rules” under “Preferences” or using the “Smart Mailbox” feature.

A Smart Mailbox is a filter/mailbox combination (Apple calls folders “mailboxes”). However, a Smart Mailbox doesn’t move the original emails out of the Inbox, so it’s more like a saved search.

Apple Mail also has a useful “VIP” feature that creates Smart Mailboxes for your favorite people. To create a VIP when you open an email from a favorite person, click on the star next to the “from” line in that email.

If you use Outlook, filters are called “Rules.”

In Gmail, open the email that you’d like to filter, click on “More”, and select “Filter Messages Like These” from the drop-down list.

You can also create an email filter from the search box. Click on the down arrow at the right end of the search box, enter your filtering criteria, and then click on “Create filter with this search”.

Need some help with your email management? Contact me.
March 30, 2016
How to Implement a Better “Getting Things Done” for Email
What does “productive” mean to you?

The first step towards productive email management may be to identify your goals. For most of us, it means a few things:
- Not missing important emails
- Not having to spend hours of our time picking out the important emails
- Quickly finding an email when we need it
- Being able to scan the inbox for important items
One popular productivity method is called “Getting Things Done” (or GTD), first made popular by David Allen’s book in 2001.

The GTD system requires that you empty your email inbox through utilizing an “action management system”. The flow goes like this:
1. Examine each email
2. Is it actionable?
3. If not,
  - trash it, or
  - move it to a “someday/maybe” list, or
  - move it to a reference list.
4. If it is actionable, determine if it will take less than 2 minutes. If yes, take care of the action. If not, delegate it or schedule it for later.
Here’s what I see are the problems with the GTD system:
- If you’re not on top of your inbox, it can grow out of control.
- So you need to make sure to:
  - Schedule time to stay on top of your inbox
  - Schedule time to deal with the task list that results from deferred items so that it’s not getting too long
  - Schedule time for your “someday/maybe” list, or else you’ll never get to it
Many people struggle with the GTD system because of the level of organization and time involved, so I advocate making a little tweak to this system.

You do need to start with looking at each email first, or at least a good representation of your inbox, and that’s because you’ll determine how you will categorize your email. Read my blog post about categorization here: How to Become a Pro at Managing Email Chaos.

Your “green” category emails are equivalent to David Allen’s “someday/maybe” emails, your “yellow” category emails his “schedule for later”, and your “red” category emails his “2 minute” emails.

Once you’ve determined how your emails can be categorized, you’ll use filters to keep the green category (or “someday/maybe”) emails out of your inbox, simplifying your daily inbox management process. I’ll be writing more on email filters later, but read this post to get the basic idea: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive. And now that your green category emails are out of your inbox, you should ideally block out some time on your calendar on a weekly basis to review these emails.

Your inbox is now smaller and easier to manage.

You’ll still need a regular routine to read those yellow and red category incoming emails and deal with them. As you move the yellow category (or “schedule for later”) emails out of your inbox, David Allen advocates implementing a method for reminding yourself to act on those tasks. If you have an email program that supports it, you can “snooze” the email or flag it for follow-up, or you can integrate your email with a task manager. (I’ll be writing blog post soon on task management integration with reminders, so check back.) If you’re a Gmail user, here’s a great post at TechRepublic: How Google Steathily Built a “GTD” Suite of Apps.

Your red category emails are your immediately actionable emails. However, you often cannot deal with these emails within two minutes or five minutes, and you may not have anyone to delegate to. So, these emails need to stay in your inbox, and they need to stay visible. The best way to keep them visible is to assign flags or stars to them, depending on your email program. Your daily routine should include sorting your inbox by flag and dealing with those high-priority emails that you had to defer because you needed more information, a response, or you just didn’t have a few minutes to deal with them.

If you struggle with organization, or even if you are a highly organized person, the most productive way to find the email that you need is to search for it. Hopefully, you’ve signed up for my email list and received my paper on “How to Find What You Need When You Need it”. If not, shoot me an email and I’ll send it to you.
March 29, 2016
A Musing on Email Overload

How did we get here with our email overload?

If you read my last blog post here: Drowning in Email, you may have been amused by the trip back to 1980. I chose this date because it was before most people had email.

Email was actually invented back in 1971.

You can read about it here: The Man Who Made You Put Away Your Pen. AOL was the first widely-used public email platform, and many of you may still use your AOL email address. If you’re old enough to remember AOL mail, then you’re probably old enough to remember the audio notification “You’ve got mail”, and the movie of the same name. AOL launched in the early 90’s and by 2006 had nearly 50 million subscribers.

AOL’s fall from that base was rapid, with Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail (now the most popular) all passing them by 2010.

Email volume overtook postal mail volume by 2007.

By that time close to 100 billion emails were being sent per day, an increase of 500% in just five years, mostly due to corporate email. By 2015, that number has doubled, to nearly 200 billion emails per day. (So you’re not the only one dealing with email overload.)

You may be reading, responding to, and organizing your email on your device through dedicated email software, called an “email client” or you may be doing it through a web browser. One of the first email clients was Eudora, developed in 1988, followed by Microsoft Outlook, released as part of Microsoft Office ’97. Today, half of all email is being read on mobile devices, particularly the iPhone and iPad. On the desktop, most email is being read on mail.google.com, followed by Outlook & Apple Mail, with Yahoo mail losing steam fast.

If you find yourself accessing your Gmail mostly on your mobile device, you may want to read my post on Google’s Inbox here: How to Manage Your Gmail Inbox. And don’t miss my longer post on email management here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive.

Contact me if you’d like some help with your email management.

March 23, 2016
Drowning in Email: A Guide Back to Shore

Dial back time (you’ll have to imagine if you’re too young) to 1980.

Imagine your morning routine: you rise, shower, eat breakfast, get in the car (or not), and get to work. You sit down at your desk, and you’re looking at a pile of nearly 100 envelopes that have been delivered overnight, stacked in front of pile after pile of envelopes that you haven’t gotten to in the previous days. You start going through the pile, sorting by the return address according to importance. As you’re doing this, the office mail person keeps coming by and adding more envelopes to the pile. Then your boss sticks her nose in the door and asks, “Where’s that invoice from the marketing agency? They said that they sent it 2 weeks ago!”

You would probably stand up and say, “I quit!” right? No one could be expected to work like that. You would need an assistant whose only job was to go through the constant stream of mail, file things where you can find them, and bring your attention to the important pieces of mail.

You can still hire an assistant to take care of your email; many business owners do, hence the rise of virtual assistants. And corporate environments are moving away from email, using team chat and collaboration tools primarily. But email is a long way from obsolescence. Despite being overwhelming and inefficient, it’s still the best way to get your thoughts and questions down and send them to other departments or clients or vendors.

You can work efficiently and productively with email even without the help of an assistant.

Your sorting method needs to be automated through the use of filters; prioritizing can be done using flags, and follow-up can be done by integrating with a task manager. You can read further here: 4 Steps to Becoming More Responsive.

Contact me if you’d like some one-on-one or group help with your email management.

March 22, 2016