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Organize Your Email

Email at 465Organize Your Email
Tips from this year’s NAPO Conference

Pam Holland teaches how to organize your email so you can identify what’s important, take action and easily find information. She recommends using:
• folders
• flag
• tags

 

When you think about how you might organize your email,
what makes the most sense?

• By topic or subject?

• According to the project and event?

• Level of Urgency? — Create a Take Action Today folder

• Sender? — If you often have to search for emails from a particular person
or a specific organization.

If you’re struggling with how to cut your inbox down to a manageable size, call us. We’re here to help you minimize mental fatigue, digital stress and physical overwhelm.

 

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Fix Email Overload

Email managmentFour D’s to Manage Email: 

Tips from fellow organizer, Pam Holland at this year’s NAPO Conference.

1  DELETE
Don’t just get rid of emails.
Make sure subscriptions with no interest stop arriving in your inbox. There are hosts of apps to help you unsubscribe from electronic junk mail. Unroll me is worth a try and SaneBox comes highly recommended. 

2  DIMINISH
Find ways to simplify any action steps.
You may need to set up archive folders specific to the areas of your life to speed the process of sorting your electronic mail.

3  DELEGATE
Can someone else address this issue?
Make sure the person to whom you delegate has all the information they need to complete the task.

4  DELAY 
Make a CONSCIOUS decision to take action later.
Julie Morgenstern teaches it best in Time Management from The Inside Out. Create a reminder for yourself with a deadline by when you want the task completed.

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Conquer Email Overwhelm

red toolkit is open showing "tools"At our 2016 NAPO Conference, fellow organizer, Pam Holland shared Five Strategies to Get Down with Digital Clutter

1. Identify your “prime working time” or best brain part of the day and check email AFTER completing important tasks

2. Use a timer when processing email
• decide how long you have and stick to a time limit
• consider the time you are willing to devote to checking email

3. Unsubscribe from things you are not reading

4. Follow David Allen’s advice and empty your email  inbox daily

5. Establish goals before you open email

  • Pam’s final tip is really important.
    Your goals should differentiate between archiving and deleting versus responding and taking action based on your in-box.
  • With that in mind, each email session may have a different purpose:

    1. Your morning email check might be to become aware of anything time sensitive.

    2. A quick afternoon email check may focus on deleting spam and shopping prompts.

    3. Your late afternoon email check could be to archive interesting articles for later reading and exploration.

    4. A “before you wrap up your day” email check would be to capture necessary info onto your calendar or to-do list.

    While we’re not suggesting you check email 4 times a day, we are advising you chunk your actions when checking email. Don’t try to do EVERYTHING in one sitting.

 

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Achieve Balance

Advice from a NAPO 2016 conference course about becoming more flexible.

If we are too rigid in our expectations, we block our ability to bend toward a solution. We can all stretch toward our goals when we accept change. Being open to suggestions significantly enhances the power and potential success of creating new habits.

Learn to make adjustments:
• small physical changes make a big difference
• mental shifts are powerful
• adapting to new situations is a sign of flexibility

Helping you create peace: You’ve heard us say, “getting organized” is like “getting in shape.” We pride ourselves on coaching you through that process of flexing new muscles when you start to organize your home life, your work spaces, and your time.

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Create Peace: A Recap

When you operate from a position of “I am enough“ and “I have enough“ everything opens up. You can see possibilities far grander than when your situation is viewed as “wrong.” Standing yoga pose at sunset
Break the cycle of thinking that everything is broken and your fault and allow peace into your life.

Peace — a stress-free mindset — come from focusing on gratitude. Adopting an “Attitude of Gratitude” has a lot to do with your ability to change your situation — be it physical or mental.

We create peace in your life: Much of our work is hands on manipulation of your stuff in your space. Our job is also to share our positive attitudes. Even if some things in life are piled higher than you’d like, it doesn’t make you a bad person.

Your situation is not hopeless. Together, we can create a peaceful work environment. A cozy space to read. A nurturing place to feed yourself and your family. And a relaxing place to rejuvenate from the hard work that you do…with joy in your space.

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Create Peace and Achieve Balance

Using yoga as inspiration, this conference course taught organizers techniques to enhance our client relations. Modeled like an exercise class — with a warm up, stretch session, intense (mental) work out and cool down — there were some stand-out lessons worth sharing:

peace and balance visual standing pose at sunset

Achieve Balance
Learn to make adjustments:
• small physical changes
• mental shifts
• adapt to new situations

All of this advice, we thought, is about becoming more flexible. If we are too rigid in our expectations, or our approaches to new situations, we block our ability to bend toward a solution. You can stretch toward your goals when you know change is not your enemy. Having a flexible mind and being open to suggestions can significantly enhance the power of trying on a new habit or technique. 

Helping you achieve balance: You’ve heard us say, “getting organized” is like “getting in shape.” We pride ourselves on coaching you through that process of flexing new muscles when you start to organize your home life, your work spaces, and your time.

Create Peace
Peace and a stress-free mindset come from focusing on gratitude.

standing pose on rocksWhen you operate from a position of “I am enough” and “I have enough” you can see possibilities far grander than when your situation is viewed as “wrong” and “your fault.” Attitude has a lot to do with your ability to change your situation (physical and mental).

We create peace in your life: Much of our work is hands on manipulation of your stuff in your space. Our job is also to share our positive attitudes. Even if some things in life piled up higher than you’d like, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Your situation is not hopeless. Together, we can create a peaceful work environment. A cozy space to read. A nurturing place to feed yourself and your family. And a relaxing place to rejuvenate from the hard work that you do. 

Feed the Mind and Body

Stay physically present and positive.

Quote: If it is important to you, you will find a way.Take care of basic biology, your energy, and your emotions. You can’t work hard when you’re exhausted or distracted by hunger.
• arrive at tasks with a comfortably full tank
• protect your sleep

Do what we do:
• always have a snack at the ready
• treat sleep like a sacred enterprise
(you will be amazed at how many fewer times you misplace things
• be honest about your emotional level
Acknowledge when just the thought of a task or project makes you anxious. Voicing how you feel is a first step toward doing what (you know) really needs to get done.

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Conference Take Aways – Cast Your Vote

Ever divide and conquer?

As parents of toddlers (years ago!) Kelly and her husband strategized bed-time and getting out the door on time with a “divide and conquer” attitude.

a view from the classroom at NAPO's 2016 conferenceJoy and Kelly used this strategy at NAPO’s conference to maximize our investment and double our learning.

We attended workshops that piqued our interests AND made sure to take notes to share with each other…and YOU.

Tell us what you want to know more about and we’ll share conference inspired advice based on your interest(s).