Get your inbox to empty after your holiday - fast
In the Each Day Empty eBook I describe how you can quickly get your inbox to empty each day. But after a summer holiday you may be in for some serious help to attack your inbox when you arrive at the office again. My own Outlook started to download 3200 mails when I returned – and I was glad that I already knew some of the following tips.
- Learn how to sort and group e-mails in your mail reader. In Outlook you could use the View | Arrange By item in the main menu.
- Sort all mails in your inbox by Subject. A lot of the spam that got through your spamfilter will be grouped together now. You can quickly remove all mails starting with Cyrillic symbols (unless you happen to live in Russia). Also all spam that happens to have the same subject over and over again can easily be spotted.
- Then sort all your mails by the To field. This may not be relevant to everyone, but I still get e-mails (especially spam) that was sent to another e-mail address than my own addresses. Sorting this way I can remove these messages easily.
- Now sort the remaining e-mails by From and Date. This way you will group all mails that came from each specific sender – and in the order that they were sent. Your mileage may vary, but I tend to quickly scan through all mails starting with the oldest one. But I don’t reply to any of the mails yet. This way I can read up on the developments, better understand my customers and employees, and still prevent myself from replying to something which is changed or revoked in a newer e-mail.
- After taking these steps, I’m up-to-date again. I’m aware of current issues, I know whether there are serious problems that need my attention and I know which e-mails I’m going to want to answer first of all.
Even before I go on vacation, I already think about the first days when I’m back in the office. In my out-of-office autoreply I do mention the date that I think I will be answering e-mails again - and it is several days after I return from vacation. This way I prevent having to tackle my e-mail straight away and in an ‘urgent’ mood, just as I’m feeling rested and relaxed from my vacation.
Fortunately, once I’m up-to-date again it’s quite easy to keep my inbox empty each day for the rest of the year.