chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Inbox Taming for Busy People

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Angelina — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:05:23 -0000

Thank for details

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Sikiş izle — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:43:00 -0000

thanks

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Project Management — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:44:01 -0000

Great work.... its really inspiring me. Thanks for the info and post.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Alex — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:52:13 -0000

Chris,

This was a great read on how to better organize your email throughout the day. I can say from experience that any way of wading through the loads of messages you get throughout the day is a step towards better productivity.

I'd like to offer you and your readers a new tool in handling your newsletters/notifications/receipts (going along with your idea of creating an account just for these emails). It's called OtherInbox.

By giving the user the ability to create new email addresses on the fly with their own domain name (facebook@you.otherinbox.com, etc…), we can give you the power to manage these emails better. New folders are automatically created for each address so you can better organize your newsletters/alerts/notifications and, if necessary, block an address entirely due to spam.

Here’s the URL for the invite to our private beta:

http://beta.otherinbox.com/...

I hope you enjoy trying us out, and I look forward to reading any thoughts or comments you might have on your blog.

Thanks!

~The OtherInbox Team

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

AV Flox — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:50:02 -0000

You have no idea how much you have simplified my life turning me on to You Are Not Your Inbox. Thank you SO much, Chris!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Sue Waters — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:11:32 -0000

I just tamed my three inboxes (gmail 3000+, home account 1000+ and work account 1000+) to zero over the weekend.

Personally sorting through 1000 in gmail is too hard -- what I did was first look at my emails quickly create meaningful labels to break my emails into categories that would help me manage my work. Then I created filters sort all existing and incoming emails into the labels. Finally I archived all of them. And since then I've been actioning all emails immediately then archiving or deleting.

Off course Outlook was harder. So just set up folders then changed to from and deleted the obvious while filing the rest. And didn't stress too much if I needed to delete more.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Ari Herzog — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 01:37:26 -0000

This is useful information, thanks. You show a GMail screenshot above, so is it fair to presume you use one GMail account and filter the other incoming messages?

How do you get around the GMail limitation of not able to prevent sending "on behalf of" another address? Or do you only reply from one address?

I used to have about 4+ email addresses, and soon after I moved from Yahoo to GMail (a decision I hated at the time but now don't regret due to GMail's amazing spam traps and ability to check multiple POP accounts simultaneously) I set up auto-forwards and away messages pointing everything to one address.

Because of the spam control, I don't worry anymore about using my GMail email address on a non-HTTPS form. I don't show my email address on my blog, though; I use Kontactr for that; gives people a form to fill out and presto!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

RBL — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:41:19 -0000

It's easy to tame your inbox if you have the right tool: Microsoft Outlook. Yes, that big bad evil company's product. Anyone who spends the time to actually learn how to use Outlook, beyond the obvious, will find it offers more organizational capability than any Webmail or other client. I have used and tested them all, and speak from experience. I deal with thousands of messages a day and don't break a sweat, thanks to Follow-up flags, Categories, Group By box, To-Do list, and other highly evolved featured that other tools don't even approximate let alone feature. Couldn't do it with any other tool. If you'd like to see how I do it, with only TWO e-mail folders and one e-mail address no less, ping me and I'll arrange a demo.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Tyler Hayes — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:33:33 -0000

I would recommend checking out Mark Hurst's book Bit Literacy on this same topic as well.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

gdesmedt1 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:25:53 -0000

Why delete e-mails?

with gmail you able to save 7Gig of info! I agree with two different e-mail accounts... one personal and one for all the sites one has to "Sign-up" for (Which is REALLY irritating!)

But... I just sort my mail using labels, and the new awesome stars, and I am able to recall any e-mail i received or sent since i opened my account. I found this useful when the other day i accidentally deleted all my contacts... going through my e-mails I found an e-mail i sent to all... and used it to recover my contacts!

then again... i don't receive 100 e-mails a day! But i like the good advise!

Thanks Chris!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

jillrapley — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 21:22:20 -0000

Chris, great post. It just so happened I had posted on my blog last night something relevant to this so I linked your blog to mine.

It is easy to get into overload mode and forget what we are really supposed to be doing.

Thanks Chris -- enjoy listening to you over Twitter also.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

tracy mazuer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:39:07 -0000

I was so excited to see Evernote, but, alas, I'm not on Leopard! I'm stuck with some other fast animal, Panther? Regardless, does anyone have a suggestion for something similar to Evernote that will work with my antiquated OS?

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

jon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:04:49 -0000

I went from 7500 to 5700 messages in my inbox yesterday, using gmail labels and filters. down to a 1000 so I can then go to 0? Maybe. Someday.

But I like the challenge.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Christian DE NEEF — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:01:41 -0000

It's quite interesting; I know other people that apply similar, disciplined processes to keep their inboxes empty, moving mail to folders, Evernote or OneNote, or just getting rid of them. I do quite the contrary: I make sure I READ my mail during the day (every day, it doesn't take that long), only delete what is spam or redundant, I NEVER store or archive mail and keep everything in my Outlook in & outboxes. I only copy things to Evernote or OneNote that I need to research/require more time, as a To Do list. I FIND everything with Google Desktop Enterprise edition. It is the antithesis of the empty mailbox: I have currently > 22 000 mails in outlook! And yes, it works very well for me...

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Becky Carroll — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:56:53 -0000

Chris, congrats on taming the email beast! Quick question from a fellow Gmail user: where are you "storing" the messages you are keeping? I have always used Gmail as my storage, as there are tags and great search capabilities. Sounds like you are doing something different in order to keep the inbox to a zero...

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Rowan Price — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:46:59 -0000

I have felt so liberated ever since I *stopped* using email as: a to-do list, an address book, a scrap-book, a calendar, and a login & project info storage system. There are better tools for all those things. So: no tags, no folders, no categories... all I need is an Inbox and, my personal favorite, Trash. Yes, I drank the 'Bit Literacy' cool-aid, and have never looked back!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Jenny, Bloggess — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:05:52 -0000

I have over 1000 unread messages in my email right now. I need to go through them all but I think it would be easier to just crash the server or set fire to my computer.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

[...Inbox Taming for Busy Peop — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:24:47 -0000

... if you ask me, Chris' system is a good system. But do what works for you. And if what you're doing isn't working, well, here's what Chris recommends ... ]

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Fernanda Ibarra — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:28:42 -0000

I am wondering what you do to network with the people you meet who rely on their email as main or only channel of connection. I currently travel a lot and meet people in the context of our organization seminars. I want to keep relating with this people in ways that go beyond the superficial social communications to inspire them to move forward and follow the ripples created in the seminars. Should I begin to inspire them to go into socialnetworks and socialmedia tools? I guess I do. Comments?

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Jared Goralnick — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:24:45 -0000

Chris,

Great job getting your messages down! Not only have you done an amazing job sorting/organizing...but you've more importantly managed to do while still respecting your contacts and responding to people in a timely manner. That's a heck of an accomplishment.

I've been trying out a lot of the advice in Stever's audiobook as well--as someone who prides themselves on all sorts of inbox-shaving techniques, I'll echo that he has some advice I hadn't even considered, especially regarding categorizing messaging before processing them.

As for AwayFind, later today we're releasing videos and a bunch of new default text that tells people explicitly how to screen out "did you get my email" messages. I'll send you a note personally when the videos are up and with some text that should get across your goal.

Looking forward to your how-to articles that are coming soon...congrats on finishing the social media 100!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

George Motoc — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:57:13 -0000

All of the above are words of the wise, but should be equally applied to the Sent box. I found that Inbox's little brother can be very useful in various office-related arguments ("You didn't copy me on that email! Really? Let's have a look in my Sent box...")
Cheers!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Sean — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:26:25 -0000

I have similar processes, but only 2 email addresses in order to keep private email completely seperate from work email.

I use gmail for private email, and check that once an hour. I filter mailing lists into folders to read another time so I can focus on email from friends.

I filter work email into 3 categories:
1: Email sent only to me. Since these people are looking for a direct reply I deal with these first
2: Email sent not just to me: These are mostly conversational, so I can let the conversation continue until I get a chance.
3: Email CC'd to me. I take a risk that most of these are for info, so these come last on the list.

I've recently cleaned up my personal inbox, and have been keeping up with it, but my work inbox is a whole different story...

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Stu Andrews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:23:24 -0000

Thanks Chris for the info. Your post has given me some clarity as to my own Inbox. I manage a number of emails through a single Gmail account, mostly with the use of filters and labels .. but also just messy chaos.

I have relied on the automatic (what gmail does for me) processes without updating my own innate processes, if that makes sense.

Cheers!

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

chrisbrogan — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:19:41 -0000

@Stu - Two are in one gmail app, and the business account is a standalone gmail app.

Re: Inbox Taming for Busy People

Stu Andrews — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:12:09 -0000

Chris,

Do you manage the three emails out of the same Gmail account? You mentioned keeping that "that box" in reference to your business email, and was wondering.