If you’re like me you probably wage a battle against an imploding inbox. A blog post yesterday by Lynda K Scott resonated with me. She pondered about email: good, bad or ho hum. Like me, she tends to delete a lot of email without even reading it.
Although I subscribe to dozens of lists, I’ve pruned back hard after being away quite a bit in the last six months. On my return I didn’t reinstate most of the mail from the lists I previously subscribed to. The exception was mail from publisher/author lists and a promo/marketing list for authors.
I deal with email on the day it arrives in the following manner.
1. Read email from editors and business emails from publishers. Action and file in folders as relevant.
2. Quickly scan newsletters for relevant articles. If nothing in the content grabs my attention I hit delete. If I’m interested in an article I’ll send it to Evernote. A very handy tool that I can’t recommend enough! I wouldn’t be without it.
3. Pick one or two promo type emails from other authors if I have time. What attracts me is a catchy title or if the promo comes from someone I know or if it’s something about writing craft that grabs my interest. I’ll click over to the article or blog and take the time to comment if I’m engaged.
4. Delete everything else.
The above helps me keep my inbox from becoming too fat. Some people I know use the filtering system to send emails to relevant folders on arrival, but I prefer to do this step manually. If an email disappears from the business part of my inbox I’m not likely to read it.
How do you cope with your email? Do you have any tips to keep an inbox slender?
January 15th, 2013 at 9:11 am · Link
I also have found Evernote helpful for keeping my inbox near empty. Anything important or messages that I can’t reply to right away are sent to Evernote in a folder called in-basket. I then work through these items in batches via the Evernote web app.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:24 am · Link
That’s a good idea. :) Evernote is great!
January 15th, 2013 at 11:39 am · Link
First I highlight everything I want to delete, delete it, and then look to see if anything is there I have to respond to immediately. Facebook, Tribber, go back and delete accumulated e-mails, tweet, read a few blogs, and reply to few e-mails. But it’s an all day process. :(
January 15th, 2013 at 12:38 pm · Link
It IS an all day process and the emails keep coming during the day. I shudder when I hear of the thousands of emails editors and agents receive each day, even though I’m happy to add to them :)
The scary thing is the amount of email that I delete without reading. I suspect that most other authors/people do the same thing.
January 15th, 2013 at 7:13 pm · Link
My e-mail inbox hasn’t gotten to the point where I have to do much in the way of pruning. But I’m hoping that with some hard work, I’ll get to where I need to follow the sage advice mentioned here. Until then, click and read :-)
January 17th, 2013 at 12:25 am · Link
Count yourself lucky, Angela. Suffocation by email takes up way too much time!
January 15th, 2013 at 8:00 pm · Link
I have 6 email addresses. I use each one for a different reason. I use one for spammy things like contests, giveaways. Another for subscriptions to things and another for personal emails. That way I know the personal emails are the most important ones and the spam email can be looked at later.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:26 am · Link
That’s a good idea, Mary. Does it help keep down the spam in your personal account?
January 15th, 2013 at 8:19 pm · Link
My inbox is nevet empty.I don’t think it ever will be.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:27 am · Link
LOL You sound resigned :)
January 15th, 2013 at 8:22 pm · Link
My email boxes are a mess. I try to clean them out once a month, but so many emails are continuous conversations that I only delete newsletters and group list digests.
Maybe I should’ve made it a New Year resolution. :sigh:
January 17th, 2013 at 12:33 am · Link
List digests drive me nuts. All the people who just hit re and don’t clip the message they’re replying too.
January 16th, 2013 at 4:39 am · Link
This task can take so much time. I use Evernote for keeping all my book research, but I’ve never used it for email management. That’s very interesting.
January 17th, 2013 at 12:35 am · Link
I think Evernote can be used in so many ways. It bears repeating – very useful app :)
January 17th, 2013 at 12:43 am · Link
I delete a lot of stuff without reading it, especially from message boards. Others I skim and either delete, or flag to return to later — especially bill notifications, so they stay at top of the inbox where I am less likely to forget them. I just did a massive purge of old emails last night. There were a lot more in the one box than I thought there was, some I had already taken care of and thought I had deleted.
January 17th, 2013 at 1:45 am · Link
I forgot about the bills. Most of ours come via email now. Bank statements too.