Managing Inbox Overload

As a blogger, an e-zine publisher (The Dreaming Café newsletter), e-zine reader and someone who enjoys connecting with others via email I am very sensitive to inbox overload.

The steps detailed below are some of the ways I’ve learned to manage inbox overload.

I hope these tips help you.

If you have any tips to add I’d love it if you’d reply below and leave a comment.

RSS – Blog Updates
Google: I have my favorite blog RSS feeds sent to either my Google home page or I use Google reader. I haven’t decided yet which I prefer.

Bookmarks: I also maintain a folder in my web browser where I bookmark all of my favorite blogs.

Ezines & Newsletters

Be picky – discriminate: Once every few months I evaluate which e-zines I am opening and reading on a regular basis and determine if their content is still interesting and helpful. I unsubscribe to a handful every few months (I also subscribe to several new ones every week).

Organize: I have set up an email address that I use strictly for e-zines and subscribing to specific mailing lists. Having all of my subscriptions in one place is allowing me to manage them better, organize them and to actually open and read more of them. They’re no longer cluttering up my personal inbox or my business inbox.

Reading Time: If I let my inbox detract me I could be reading ezines all day. I now set some time away each day, usually in the early morning or evening, to read the many e-zines I subscribe to.

General Inbox Management

Time: I am trying, although I don’t always succeed in checking my inbox and responding to emails to just three times per day, once in the morning, afternoon and evening.

Move and Prioritize: Not all emails need a response and not all emails need a response right away.

I try to read (or quickly skim) and file email messages that do not need a response into the folders I’ve setup by category, person or topic.

Some messages do not an immediate response, but need to be answered at some point so I move these into a holding folder and take care of them later in the evening or first thing in the morning.

Messages that need an immediate response, I take care of right away. Once I respond I move and file the original email immediately so it doesn’t clutter up my inbox.

Were these tips helpful? Do you have more to add? If so, I’d love it if you left a comment below.