What an Email Inbox is Not

I found this great article about e-mail clutter written by fellow Professional Organizer Donna Lindley

Consider your physical mailbox at home. Would you store pieces of mail in your mailbox that require action? What about mail announcing that your friend has moved and has a new address? How about mail reminding you of an upcoming appointment? I didn’t think so. Your email inbox should not be any different. A mailbox, whether physical or virtual, is a place to receive mail. It is NOT meant for storage. Mail should come in and out quickly.

Below are some of the most common items that we find “stored” in our clients’ inboxes. An email inbox is NOT a:

Filing System - create folders to store email that you want to keep for future reference.
Contact Management System – use a contact management system to store contact information such as email addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, addresses, etc. Some options include Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, Goldmine, and Salesforce.com.

Calendar - store your appointments in your calendar. It doesn’t matter whether you keep a paper-based calendar or an electronic calendar. You need to have one place to look to see all of your appointments.

‘Favorites’ List – if someone sends you a great website, don’t leave it in an email in your inbox. You can add it to your “Favorites” in Internet Explorer, your “Bookmarks” in Mozilla Firefox, or try Delicious. Delicious is a free Social Bookmarking website. It allows you to bookmark your favorite sites and access them anytime from any computer with internet access. You can keep your “favorites” private or share them with others.

To-Do List – your email inbox is the worst place to store your to-dos. Again, you want to have one place to go to see all of your to-dos. You cannot possibly compare and prioritize them if they are not stored together. This is probably the most common offender.

Many of you are familiar with the old adage – A place for everything and everything in its place. By creating “homes” for each of these types of items listed above, you can gain control of your email inbox, keep it organized and save time.

Michigan-based Productivity Trainer and Certified Professional Organizer, Donna Lindley, publishes the “Timely Tips” monthly ezine from Organized Office Solutions. If you’re ready to jump-start your productivity by organizing your space, time, email and paper, sign up to receive your FREE tips by going to [http://www.OrganizedOfficeSolutions.com]http://www.OrganizedOfficeSolutions.com.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/What-an-Email-Inbox-is-Not

Break the “I’ll just put this here for now” clutter habit

Much of the time, clutter around the home is caused by family members being too busy or careless to put things away after using them. Adults may say to themselves as they set purses, keys, shoes, mail or other personal items down “I’ll just put this here for now”, and pretty soon big piles and clutter results. Kids often leave out their toys, school supplies or other personal items lying around underfoot. One easy way to reduce clutter in your home is to remember to never leave a room empty-handed. You can teach this to kids too by providing them with a basket to throw things in, then carry to their rooms at the end of the day. Encourage your family to be responsible for their belongings by taking the time to put them where they go when they’re finished with them and not bring anything else out until they do.

As a professional Organizer, I’ve trained myself to do this little trick in my own home, but also when I am working in a client’s home. If I am taking items to another space to put away, I look around for an item that does not belong and I carry that item back to where I started. For example, I often see clothing and shoes laying around in cluttered homes. It’s so easy to just kick off your shoes where you light or peal off a jacket and leave it over a chair. Before long a pile has developed along with a bad habit. But leaving these items there is just delaying the inevitable and the more you succumb to this bad habit, the pile grows and creates a bigger clean up job. Instead, never leave a room empty handed. As you move around your home for various reasons, like going to the kitchen, to the restroom, to your closet to get shoes before leaving the house, pick up a misplaced item and carry it with you and drop it off during your trip. Before leaving that space, pick up another misplaced item and carry it with you and drop it off where it goes. Train yourself and your family to think this way and before you know it, you’ll have devoted time to clutter control without even realizing it! It takes minimal effort and it’s less work later on for all.

Originally posted 2008-09-23 15:23:59. Republished by Old Post Promoter