Taming the e-mail monster

(www.myorganizedbiz.com) – Since e-mail is such a big part of our businesses, we’ll be featuring ways you can keep your inbox under control. If you can’t put your finger on an important e-mail, or you spend more than 5 minutes looking for it, you may need to prune your messages.

One thing that has helped me quite a bit is giving myself permission to delete e-mails. Yes, deleting. You see, with so much storage available to us, it’s easy to keep everything “just in case.”

The question to ask yourself is whether you’ll really need that e-mail later. Of course, contracts, agreements, quotes, and important e-mails like that should be kept. But when you have a long e-mail conversation, do you really need to keep everything, or just the few at the end that contain the entire string?

I used to keep all e-mails. But now, I quickly decide if it’s something I’ll truly need to refer back to. Is it strictly an “FYI” e-mail? Can you read and digest it, then move on? Do it.

If you’re worried that you’ll delete something you need, do a trial. Put the e-mails in the trash, but don’t empty the trash. If you don’t refer back to it in a few days (or a few weeks if you’re really worried), you probably won’t need it.

It’s so easy to be an e-mail pack rat. But you don’t have to be, and you’ll feel a sense of relief once you realize how freeing it is to hit that delete key. Go ahead, give yourself permission.

Image: James Cridland (creative commons)