My Out-of-Control Inbox

How many emails hit your inbox in a day? I recently sat next to someone at a seminar who said she received close to 500 emails each day. Wow! I then started pondering how I would deal with 500 emails each day and decided that if this ever happened I’d need an assistant or at least a good stylist to cover the gray hair that would ensue. That seems like a crazy high number to me and I have to wonder how much of that is newsfeed type emails. I do receive a lot of newsfeed emails, but I also asked that company to populate my inbox. If it gets to be too much, then I can always unsubscribe. These messages typically get a quick glance and a decision to “read later” or “delete.”

How do you manage your inbox? I’m just curious. I recently devoted an afternoon to clean out my inbox as it had swelled to over 400 messages. I know there are IT folks who are cringing at this confession, but it’s true. It doesn’t take long to have an out-of-control inbox! Granted I have a lovely “filing” system within my inbox, and it takes a mere second to drag a read message to the right folder, but I seem to always forget this step. At face value I do have a system. I flag messages that need follow-up and assign a reminder date. I mark messages as “unread” when they require more immediate action, and on a good day I move messages out of the inbox that I have answered and don’t need further action. Is this the normal approach or is there a better way? If you have a system in place and don’t mind sharing, feel free to comment. I’d love to hear what works for you!

— Chellie Thompson, Cofounder, Monarch Media & Consulting, Inc.