Returning to a Full Inbox?

Returning to work after a break so often means returning to a full inbox!

You’ve had some time off (and I hope that you had a chance to relax and unwind a bit), now it’s time to get back in the swing of work. Like most of us, I’m sure that the first thing you do is open Outlook and check your emails.

Maybe your inbox is under control, or like so many people there’s too many emails and you need to deal with them.

I’m sharing my process for dealing with email overwhelm.

The ‘Multi-Pass’ Process

My process involves going through the emails of your full inbox several times.

With each pass, you deal with a specific type of message, reducing the number down to a manageable amount.

Create a ‘To Read’ Folder

The first step is to create a new folder – I normally call it “To Read”.

In this first pass through your Inbox, look for those emails that are non-urgent. This could be emails that contain useful information, requests for something that aren’t due now.

Any email that fits into this category – move into the ‘To Read’ folder.

Important: You will need to make time later – today, this week or this month – to read through these emails!

Your inbox now contains messages that you need to work on.

Meeting Invites

The next pass, look for any meeting invites.

Depending on how long your holiday was, there are two types:

• Past meetings
• Future meetings

Past Meetings

There are the easy ones to deal with.

Check the date, and if it’s last year – just delete them. Choose what to do – i.e. let the organiser know or not. My suggestion is not to bother sending that response, the meeting is over and the organiser knows that you didn’t attend.

Future Meetings

Depending on how many meetings you get invited to, and how much time you have now, there are two options to dealing with these.

Quick and Easy – as you come to each meeting invite – accept it tentatively. When you’ve dealt with your inbox, you’ll move over to your calendar, and look at each meeting. For the ones you want/need to attend, accept them. Decline the remaining invites.

Slow and Through – work through each meeting invite, checking what it’s about, if you need to attend, and if you’re free. Now accept or decline each one as needed.

Your inbox is now much smaller, but we’re not done.

Remaining Emails

Now you can action the remaining messages.

Take each email in turn, reading it and completing the relevant tasks.

Choose if you want to start with the oldest message first, or the newest (appearing at the top of your inbox).

Tip: It’s easier to work from the top down, the default order is newest first, you can change it to be oldest first while you work through these emails.

Now that’s done, your inbox is a manageable amount.

Reminder: Remember your ‘To Read’ folder and work through those emails as well. Over the next few days work through these emails.

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