Email Pain Points
photo credit: gruntzooki
We live in a society where we are bombarded with information from every angle and we are especially overloaded by incoming email. Try Googling “Email Overload“- you will get 299,000 results. Everyone seems to be suffering from it.
So, why are we so overloaded by email? Here are some points of pain that seem to be common among email users:
- One of the basic frustrations of disorganization in general, and email specifically, is not being able to find what you need when you need it.
- Your inbox fills up quicker than you can empty it. Therefore, if you don’t keep up you will be perpetually trying to catch up.
- You can’t get any REAL work done because you are too busy dealing with email.
- You feel pressured to reply to ALL of your emails quickly.
I’d love to hear your email pain points and why you may be frustrated and overwhelmed by email in the comments section. More on email overload next week…
May 4th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Hi Lauren:
It’s taken me awhile but I’ve finally discovered some great ways for managing my email inbox. Using the David Allen GTD approach I take a quick glance an all incoming email and decide on the “next action” step for it. I have “next action” folders set up so an email can quickly be moved to “needs reply”; “waiting for”; “reference (sub titles for types of reference)and then some specific subject titles where I save emails pertaining to client info./communications or my website etc. I’ve also started to have emails from certain sources (of which I get large numbers of emails daily) put directly into their own folder. They never appear in my inbox and i can go and deal with them separately once/day or every-other day as I have time. Seems simple, i know, but wow — it’s been e-life changing.
Joan Kosmachuk http://www.simpleeffects.com
May 5th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Joan,
David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done)process definitely has it’s following! It works for so many. I don’t use GTD per se but definitely have a system and like to keep my inbox empty.
Thanks for sharing what works for you!
Lauren