Thread: Organising Your Inbox Right

Organising Your Inbox Right Whether it's Web mail or Outlook, it pays to be able to look at your inbox and immediately know what tasks you must prioritise. Here, we must follow the teachings of GTD (Getting Things Done). though you can add your own twist to it. Most importantly, you should be checking your e-mail at designated times of the day, or when someone specifically tells you it's urgent that you do so.

Mentally divide your e-mail into five categories-mail that can be addressed in the next five minutes, mail that needs to be addressed soon and is high¬priority, mail that needs to be addressed soon but is secondary priority, mail that needs to be eventually addressed, but can wait a few days, and finally, n:ail that you don't really need to do anything about. If you receive an e-mail that can be addressed in the next five minutes, address it-get it off your back as soon as you can. For the rest, create folders-Priority 1, Priority 2, If I get time, Information, Done, and so on. Sort your mail every time you check it, and you'll find yourself looking at a clean, un-cluttered inbox.



Folders in your inbox appear in alphabetical order, but you should really sort them in order of importance. To do this, precede the folder's name with a number-"OPriority 1", for example, will ensure that this folder's always on top, ready for your attention.
Just don't forget to actually do the work, though.