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betty@logicalplacement.com • www.LogicalPlacement.com
August 2021 – Gain Control of your Inbox

Today, we are going to gain control of your Inbox.

Most of us get inundated with emails – both wanted and unwanted. Let’s prepare a few ground rules to help simplify the process of handling them properly:

THE FIRST IDEA is to create a separate email account specifically for occasional use. You can use it to sign up for those rare sales, coupons and one-time deals. It will come in handy because many of those sites keep sending more emails, so this account can be useful.

To do this, I would recommend opening this free “special email” (junk) account on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or anywhere else you choose. Now don’t forget to choose a memorable email ID name, and choose a good password that will be easy to remember. Write down both the ID name and password, to make it easy for you to remember. (Everyone should do this for ALL of our internet accounts, actually.)

Of course, don’t use any names, numbers or repeat any similar words you use on your regular, “important” email accounts, to help keep them as secure as possible.

NEXT, WE NEED to attack how you use your official email account, for your safe use:

A. Create folders so you can get emails out of your in-box which will make them easier to find. Think of your inbox like a filing cabinet. It needs folders to separate things, so be sure to name your folders descriptively.

B. Decide what emails need a response, such as messages from your boss. Reply to those quickly as your top priority.

C. We all get cc’d on emails, usually more often than necessary. But now you must decide on to respond — or choose if you should just hit the delete button. If you are just copied and not the prime recipient, what’s the worst that can happen?

D. If an email is going to take longer than usual to reply, schedule time later in your day to work on it — but don’t forget it!

E. If someone has sent a number of questions to you, just reply under each question so as not to miss any of them. Some people write all their answers in a different color, usually red. This helps you cut down on time spent on such emails.

F. When searching for emails, often times I use the person’s email address and search that way. Normally, the search functions are very strong and helpful.

G. Some people like keeping their in-box empty, while others don’t care if they have 2,000 unread emails. Do what works for you — it’s what makes you feel comfortable that matters.

TO KEEP YOUR online sanity, don’t check your emails every 10 minutes. Try to do it every two hours or even just twice a day. You might want to shut off the email notifications if you get easily distracted. Reading through emails can consume a huge part of every day, if you let them.

Finally, as you read a batch of daily emails, decide whether you want to continue or should unsubscribe from them. Hopefully you still find my newsletters helpful and will keep them coming!

If you choose not to create a junk email file, you can always place all unknown emails into your Junk folder and delete your entire Junk folder once a month or so. The point is: you want to be in control of how you spend your time online!

Your local professional organizer,

Betty Huotari

P.S. If you would like to share this email with a friend, please pass it along and if they would like to be added to my list, have them send me an email. If you wish to unsubscribe from the monthly newsletter, please send an email to betty@logicalplacement.com.