Convert E-mails Into What They REALLY Are

Note from Phil: E-mail is a tough beast to overcome, and it is a constant struggle for me to keep up with all the e-mails I get each day. So rather than just me talking about it, I thought I’d bring in an expert to share HIS tactics on making e-mail work.

Convert Your E-mails Into What They REALLY Are To Find Your E-mail “Sanity” 
Guest article from Randy Dean, The "Totally Obsessed" Time Management Guy and E-mail Sanity Expert

E-mail is an amazing communications tool.  You can send files, information, tasks, and more in almost-real-time to just about anyone with a valid e-mail address globally.  But many people are struggling with e-mail overload and overwhelm these days, and from my consulting and training on the topic, I think I’ve figured out part of the reason why:  people are keeping their information in e-mail format rather than converting those e-mails into what they really are:  information, tasks, calendar events, and/or contacts.

Most of the time, an e-mail is a delivery mechanism for a piece of valuable information and/or a task.  The person is sending you information via e-mail to “inform” you of something you need to know.  Sometimes this information is directly relevant to an existing client, project, co-worker, etc.  In these situations, if there is no action – it is simply knowledge to keep for later use and reference, then the prescribed action is to file that information.  Get it OUT of your inbox, and get it into a proper subfolder or archival folder location.  Then, you won’t keep looking at that e-mail over and over again to remind yourself you didn’t have an action you needed to complete – out of sight, out of mind (until of course you need to reference it later.)

Oftentimes, it isn’t just information you are receiving – you also have some form of task or deliverable you are expected to do because you received the e-mail (and sometimes you receive multiple tasks per e-mail.)  In this case, convert the e-mail to a task (or tasks).  In MS Outlook, this is most easily done by selecting the e-mail via a single left click, holding the click, and then “dragging” the e-mail to the Task function icon (to the left), and “dropping” the e-mail on the Tasks icon.  This will auto-launch a new task in MS Outlook, with the task being titled the subject line of the e-mail (and the full text of the e-mail being in the open note area at the bottom of the task.  Note:  most commercial e-mail programs offer some other way of doing this – possibly via a “right click” rather than a “drag & drop”).  Usually, the subject line of the e-mail isn’t really the task you need to do – you have to quickly overwrite the title of the task with the actual task you need to complete, and then set up the other information (due date, status, category, etc.)  But using the drag & drop capabilities in Outlook to create a new task from an e-mail literally takes seconds, and once you’ve done this, you no longer need that e-mail in your inbox – you can file it into a subfolder as mentioned above and/or just delete it (that of course assumes you don’t have multiple tasks in that single e-mail.  If you have multiple tasks, “drag & drop” one time for each and every task until all tasks are accounted for in your task list.)

Of course, sometimes your e-mails actually are an invitation to a meeting or event, and/or contain information on a valuable new personal or professional contact.  If that is the case, MS Outlook also allows you to “drag & drop” to the Calendar and/or Contacts functions, using the same left-click & hold, drag & drop routine mentioned above.  You can quickly create new calendar items and contacts – usually in a matter of seconds – with virtually no typing (especially if you cut & paste from the sender’s e-mail signature when creating a new contact). 

By converting your e-mails into what they really are – information, tasks, calendar items, and/or contacts (and yes, some e-mails are actually several of these in one), you no longer need to keep those e-mails in your inbox.  You can then stop re-reading your messages over and over trying to figure out what you need to do, and start administering your tasks, information, calendar items, and contacts in a significantly more efficient and productive manner.  Best of luck taming that e-mail beast!

About the author: Randy Dean, the “E-mail Sanity” Expert, is a popular speaker and trainer on time and e-mail management for major corporations, federal agencies, top universities, and national conferences. He is the author of the new book, Taming the E-mail Beast: 45 Key Strategies for Better Managing Your E-mail Overload (Sortis Publishing, 2009), which is launching right now on Amazon.com (learn more at http://www.TamingEmailBook.com.) You can learn more about Randy and his speaking/training programs at http://www.emailsanityexpert.com and http://www.randalldean.com .)

Inbox Victory photo courtesy of Tony Crider