Due to skier’s thumb, I can’t type long notes, articles, or blog entries. I’ve used the opportunity to clean up my email box since it only involves the mouse (which I’ve become adept at with my left hand though I’m a lefty, I use the right hand for mousing business) and a finger or two instead of both hands.

I use filters to file emails from certain companies and email addresses into specific folders. I keep the inbox as empty as possible. It rarely reaches 10 emails after a review. You’ve probably read most of these tips at some place or another, but it never hurts to have a refresher.

Here’s a list of things to do to clean up email boxes with details following.

• Notice which newsletters you never read or always delete and take the following action:
  1. Unsubscribe.
  2. Change email options to help you receive fewer messages from the sender. Some companies have multiple options or let you control the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) as well as individual vs. digest (all the individual emails combined into one daily digest).
  3. Create or edit the filter to file it away or delete it.
• Take instant action on emails that won’t take longer than five minutes. For example, someone asking for canned food donations? Get up, grab a few cans, put in bag, and put by door or inside car. As soon as that’s done, delete or file the email.
• Create a folder for things you like to read (newsletters), but they don’t require action or instant reading. That way, when you get a break or need a break, you just jump to the newsletter or reads folder and read away.
• Create a folder for current work. This helps me ensure I keep my inbox as clean as possible while keeping current work in an easy to find place. Once I finish the project or assignment, I file the email into its permanent folder.
• Create a folder for other email accounts. For example, I’m a big PTA volunteer and have PTA email addresses. Those all go into my PTA folder instead of my main inbox. When I take care of the PTA item, I file the email into the specific PTA folder (elementary school, high school, or city PTA) out of the main PTA folder. The main PTA folder acts like my inbox for PTA stuff.
• Create a folder for follow up. These items have no time constraints and low priority. Or you can treat the folder that you check once a week or else the emails will stay there for too long.

Sometimes we forget to change things up. For instance, I’d delete the same newsletters that came into my inbox daily. So I started paying attention to these deletions. As a result, I’ve either unsubscribed to the newsletter or change the filter to send it to the delete folder or other folder out of my way.

I don’t want to unsubscribe to all of them because some do still have gems. Either it may not be what I need on a daily basis or they send too many promotional emails between newsletters with valuable content.

Gmail handles most of my newsletter subscriptions. So I can always search if I need something. I rarely enter Gmail’s trash folder beyond searching for items. With my desktop email, I’d delete trashed emails a couple of times a week. It used to be every day. Gmail helped me curb that wasteful habit. I never delete trash in Gmail.

In essence, Gmail helped become less obsessive with email cleaning. I added Gmail into Thunderbird (my email client) as an account using IMAP. Gmail has instructions for doing this. The Gmail folders in Thunderbird reflect those in Gmail. I can create a new folder in Thunderbird for Gmail and it appears on Gmail, too.

I moved a lot of my Thunderbird filed emails into Gmail. Three reasons:

1. Access the messages from any computer, anywhere.
2. Better backup solution than my computer’s backup.
3. Keep local inbox lightweight as attachments go into Gmail or elsewhere.

I don’t file everything into Gmail because I like the faster and offline access to the emails on my computer. That’s a personal preference. I also moved many of my newsletter subscriptions from my desktop account to Gmail.

Only habit I haven’t broken is checking email less often. But email is my “phone” that I hear from school and elsewhere needing instant addressing (like to pick up my sick kid from school). What tips do you have for better email management?

I love Terri Libenson’s The Pajama Diaries. My mom saves them for me since my local newspaper doesn’t carry the comic strip (I submitted a request for it). The strip revolves around freelancer Jill Kaplan, a mother and Jewish woman. That’s me. AND my maiden name is Kaplan. The following strip captures a day in the life of a freelancer except add PTA and volunteer work in there.

Click to view larger

Jill is an graphic designer, but most of the time the strip focuses on the fact she’s a freelancer working in an home office. Here you can see more examples. I would love to see the series come out in book form like Baby Blues, which I also love. I relate to the Pajama Diaries more from a career and balance work and home-life perspective. Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott do a lovely job capturing parenthood and children in Baby Blues.

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• Personality Page: Character Traits for Writers
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• 5 Essential Ingredients In My Ideal Writing Weekend

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Want to know what it’s like to travel to Japan? Jamie points to The Stupid American Tourist.
• In memory of my dad, the baseball fan — one thing we shared. Switch pitcher meets switch hitter.
• NYC Panorama and Coney Island: Breathtaking photos.

Of to Austin for a PTA thingy. Yes, I’m one of them… a PTA mom and board member (three times over on both counts).

While podcasting is low on my list of things to follow, an article caught my eye. A local PTA is using podcasting to record its general meetings so those who can’t attend can get up to speed.

Most of the time, general meetings follow with a program consisting of a speaker on an education-related topic or the children perform for their parents. Recording the meeting gives people a chance to hear the speaker and learn more about the topic or parents to have a recording of their children’s program.

On the flip side, will podcasts prevent people from attending meetings? The article states it won’t because it means missing out on the interactions and asking questions. Things brings up an important point — is technology isolating us?

For me, technology brings me closer to people more often than in an in-person group event. But that’s probably because of my hearing loss. Technology is wonderful, but we want to ensure it doesn’t cut us off from each other.

Last week, I attended an in person meeting with a local client. Though I feel uneasy about meeting someone in person for the first time (because of concerns whether I will be able to understand the person), the meeting accomplished more than if we had discussions by e-mail.

Since most of my clients aren’t local, it isn’t a problem. But it illustrates the value of connecting with others in-person.