For everyone that knows me, they will know that the two biggest struggles I face on a daily basis are:

1. Responding to all the phone messages I have received
2. Actioning emails I have received

Anyone that sits in front of a computer will know that emails are great to get a message to someone immediately but a nightmare when a million of those messages come directly to you! I then end up spending hours sorting through emails and junk, inevitably missing one and then never ever getting rid of everything.

Well it seems I’m not alone, a recent survey conducted showed that workers spend approximately 28% of their entire work week just managing emails and 83% of people become overly stressed and agitated when faced with emails.

Getting on top of your emails may seem counterproductive and an overly draining task but in turn is such an important thing to do. I know firsthand how easy it is to allow emails and in particular your inbox take over and am in the process myself of creating a system to manage mail. I can’t wait for the day when I open my outlook to see only emails from that particular day to be addressed and not from last week, last month, last year and longer! I know this will make my life easier, ensure I’m more organised and more importantly alleviate just a little bit of stress from my day!

When I read the statistics stating we spend a quarter of our day purely attending to emails I knew that a better system needed to be implemented.

If you are like me and your emails and inbox have taken control join me and make the pledge to regain control and create an efficient process!

Set aside a good couple of hours dedicated solely to your emails, to essentially give your system a ‘spring clean’!

Review your entire inbox, delete anything that is irrelevant, has been actioned or is no longer important. Action anything that can be done so immediately otherwise move it to another folder to follow up at another time. If you are like me and have inadvertently become a member of a million travel sites, discount shopping sites, promotions etc ask yourself “do you still need to get these emails?” “can they be sent to a different address?” or just unsubscribe from them as you make your way through your review.

Create folders and move emails that are to be kept to an organised place in your email. Create a system and minimise your outlook’s (or equivalent program’s) capacity by creating rules to ensure emails are sent to specific folders as opposed to clogging up your inbox.

It has been determined that once an employee has been distracted by an email it will take them on average 64 seconds to shift focus back to their work. To eliminate this and increase productivity where possible allocate particular times in your day that you dedicate solely to email management.

Emails should be seen as a powerful tool and not as a burden!

Join me in this quest and aim to have an inbox of zero!