Comments on: Hey! Clean up Your Email Box!

By: Jeanne Dininni

Jeanne Dininni — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:54:26 +0000

Meryl,

A folder for current work is a fabulous idea--as is a follow-up folder for low-priority items that we don't want to lose track of yet also don't want clogging up our inboxes.

It's so easy to lose control of our inboxes. Thanks for giving us a few highly practical strategies for taming the e-mail monster!

Jeanne

By: Meryl

Meryl — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:12:27 +0000

Thanks, Thomas. I ordered it. We’ll see how well it works with my deaf accent. Will report. Just going to be interesting to talk my writing instead of typing… never been good at talking as well as writing.

By: TP

TP — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:32:59 +0000

On your thumb problem. If you can swing it try purchasing some speech recognition software. You will be pleasantly surprised at how good they are these days. You will also become a lot more efficient since you can speak at least twice as fast as you can type. Dragon Naturally speaking is a good one to look at.

By: Meryl

Meryl — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:39:52 +0000

I promise I didn’t pay George to say that Thank you, George. If any questions come to mind as you work through inbox, please ask. Glad to help… gotta make my freak obsession with organization useful for others.

By: Tumblemoose

Tumblemoose — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:48:05 +0000

Oh, Meryl.

You are making me your biggest fan. The email cleanup procedure is something that always ends up on the back burner – ’cause I never seem to find the time. But, I have learned that by organizing my outlook folders I am actually able to be more productive. As opposed to searching for twenty minutes for that $%#@& email that I KNOW is in there somewhere…

Cheers

George

Tumblemoose´s last blog post… Facebook, writer’s forums and other thoughts

By: Meryl

Meryl — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:44:19 +0000

One more advice: Don't have two emails from the same project or client in inbox. Keep one and put the other in Current Work. Keep the more important one in the inbox.

Brad, thank you. Still have to wait to get back full use of my hand for another month.

Lee, thanks for sharing the Mac side.

Karen, great start. Keep it up. Try to set a goal of 50 emails per day or something that makes you feel accomplishment without overwhelming yourself.

By: Karen Putz / DeafMom

Karen Putz / DeafMom — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:24:53 +0000

You’re talking to a woman who just cleaned out 200 emails but has, gulp, 700+ more to go. I’m slowly importing email addresses to Gmail from AOL (yeah, I know!) and organizing my emails into better groups.

I’m not the most organized person and I do pay the price sometimes because I can’t find the emails I need when I need them. Your approach sounds so much better!

Karen Putz / DeafMom´s last blog post… Dust Bunnies Captured at Deaf Mom’s House

By: Lee Herman

Lee Herman — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:07:40 +0000

Hi Meryl,

Very nice presentation of email handling approaches.

I use the pop-ups from Growl for Mail on the Mac and Outlook’s built in ones to solve the focus problem of needing to be continuously attuned to email. I also look at the inbox when I get back to my desk. That way I can stay focused on work and still respond quickly to emergency items in email.

Heal quickly – one handed typing is certainly a pain.

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:44:40 +0000

Hi Meryl, A folder/label for Current Work is a fabulous idea. I may give that a try! Good luck with your thumb. Sounds very unpleasant.

Brad Shorr´s last blog post… Troublesome Words Explained by Bill Bryson