On any given day I get about 60-75 emails, of which there are 25 to 30 that need follow-up action on my part. This might not seem like much to many, but I have been struggling to stay on top of this. Invariably, when there are these many emails and you let a couple of them slip or slide, people start sending you reminder emails. These reminders tend to aggravate me, and I start to focus on them at the cost of letting other important mails slip. This has become a vicious cycle.
Recently I have discovered a few of things that are helping me. First, do not work with your email inbox open and actively connected /synchronized to the server. Second, download the emails about 2-3 times a day and make sure that you open every email once and once only. Third, start to open and deal with the emails from the bottom to the top (first in first out). This step requires some deal of discipline. Once you open the email -- disposition it! Do not leave it sitting in the inbox. Either delete it or delegate it to the appropriate party or file it in the appropriate folder for future reference. Usually you need to file it in the folder that suggests itself in the first 5-10 seconds.
Try this approach and see if you can get a handle on this email overload. It is one of the primary stressors in this day and age and the sooner we learn to deal with it effectively the better off we will be!
Let me know if it is working for you.
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