How did you do this week with the "You've Got {Too Much} Email" challenge? I'm feeling less overwhelmed every week as I clear out the clutter in my inbox and email folders!
If you're just joining in and you're not sure what this challenge is all about, you can click here to read all about it.
Every Monday evening I post my update on how many emails I deleted during that week. So here is this week's update!
I deleted 586 emails this week. Doubled my weekly goal of 250 and with less and less "easy" emails left to delete I'm having to think more as I decide what to keep and what to delete :)
This week the emails I deleted were from the Inbox, a few job-related folders, my "Pictures" folder and the "Stuff to Keep" folder.
Since I deleted so many emails from those job folders, I only ended up with a few left in each, so I also moved those emails into the "Job Stuff" folder and then deleted the other folders. Much simpler now! I was much more ruthless on what I kept this week.
The "Stuff to Keep" folder had lots of emails that I used to think were important but that aren't as necessary anymore, or I know I could find the information online if I needed it. {Remember I've been using this email account for nearly 15 years...the Internet has changed a lot in that time!}.
I deleted a bunch of emails from the "Pictures" folder this week too. This folder was a place I "dumped" emails with pictures that I wanted to save on our computer when I didn't have time to just do it right away. The problem was, I rarely went back and saved those pictures. That folder was a constant reminder of a task I needed to do but never did. Not fun!
So this week, I finally saved some of the pictures in the emails on our hard drive and then deleted those emails. Other emails I just deleted. Emails with links to photo sharing sites that don't exist anymore... or that people have removed their pictures from so the links don't work anymore. Yep... I've had this account a long time :)
I still have more to go through in the "Pictures" folder but it was a good start this week. A little less taunting now :)
If you're feeling overwhelmed when you check email, this challenge is for you! Even if you just do a few minutes a day it will help!
During this challenge, I've been coming across other bloggers who have shared motivation and tips for managing your inbox and I thought it would be great to share them with you each week.
This week's tips come from Peter Bregman, who frequently writes for the Harvard Business Review. In this post, he shares his experience coming back from a technology-free vacation to hundreds of emails {can anyone relate?!}. He learned some great tips to process emails efficiently, without getting bogged down, distracted, or overwhelmed, and he shares those tips with us.
Here's the link: http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/04/coping-with-email-overload.html.
I've included tips in the other update posts in this series, so if you've missed any, here's a full list.
Why delete emails, how the challenge works & free tracking sheet
More on how the challenge works & "Done is better than perfect"
Tips for deleting "Easy" emails
Tips for both the "project" phase of cleaning up your inbox and the "maintaining" phase
Becoming an email "ninja"
Don't forget, you can join this challenge at any time! You can choose to do a little bit each day or week or just jump in and do a bunch all at once.
If you haven't downloaded your free spreadsheet or free printable tracking chart, click the appropriate link to get yours and then jump in and start deleting!
So have you been deleting emails? What's your motivation? What kind of emails have you been deleting?
Share your tips and progress in the comments so we can all encourage each other!
Check out the Challenges tab to see the rest of the posts in the series!
I'm enjoying sharing this journey with you. We're all in this together :) Here's to a less overwhelming inbox!
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