Email is part of life. It gets unfairly criticized sometimes, but it is a challenge to many people.
You can find tons of tips to help you manage your email, but here is one simple suggestion.
Whenever possible, remove yourself from the “CC”–or in other words, internal lists.
I’m not talking about email newsletters. For that I recommend Unroll.me provided you are okay with their privacy terms.
I mean direct emails that come to you because you have become part of a group.
For example, I manage a collaborative monthly post for a client, and there are a number of potential contributors. I use that list to send reminders a few times a month. There are quite a few people that don’t actively participate in the opportunity, yet never ask me to come off the reminder list. I’m not sure what they do with the reminders I send, but I wouldn’t be offended if they ask to be removed, and maybe they’d have one less email to deal with a few times a month.
Maybe “just one” email isn’t a big bother. But what would happen if that “one” turned into 10-20 emails you no longer had to process regularly? Would that save you time?
Take a look at all direct lists that you may be on. Can you come off that “Lunch Group” email if you never go to lunch with that group? Can you ask not to be cc’d on a weekly report when you already receive it at staff meeting? The few minutes you spend evaluating what lists you are on, and deciding what to come off of, might help. If nothing else, your inbox will begin to look less visually cluttered, which energizes you to tackle the rest of it.
What list do you need to ask to be removed from today?