How to Best Organize Your Inbox

 

Most of us get hundreds of emails per day.  It is very easy for messages to get lost in the shuffle.  How can you stay on top of so much information without being overwhelmed, missing important deadlines, or losing key details?  It is actually very simple.  It just requires a technique to organize the information so that what you need is where you can easily find it when you need it.

 

Clean Your Inbox

First of all, you must commit to only keep items that require action in your inbox.  For those of you that have 15,000 old emails in your inbox, this can sound like the last thing on Earth you want to do.  Hear me out. 

 

Start with taking all of those old emails and putting them into a folder called “Pre-2015” for example.  Move EVERYTHING into that folder.  There you go.  You’ve got a clean inbox. 

 

Sort Incoming Emails for Efficiency

Now, for all future incoming emails, read through them quickly and determine what action you need to take.  Take the action immediately to reduce the amount of time you spend on each email:

1.     If no action is needed, read through it and then move it to an appropriate folder.  Make your folders applicable to categories of work you often perform so that you can easily find any information when you need it, such as: Best Practices, Clients, Financial, Insurance, Meetings and Scheduling, Projects, etc.  By using appropriate folders you will be able to find a message if you ever need it without it clogging up your inbox and diluting your attention.

 

2.     If action is needed, keep it in your inbox.  You will now be staring at it until it drives you crazy and you take action.

 

3.     If follow up is needed, put it in a “_Tickler” folder and flag it with an appropriate follow up date (right click, follow up, add reminder). 

 

Pending Folders vs. Archive Folders:

By using an underscore (_) at the beginning of a folder name, you indicate that the folder is pending and requires further action.  This allows it to show up higher on the list of folders so that you actually see it and don’t forget about it.  Folders without the underscore are regular archive folders that only need to be looked at if you are searching for something to reference it. 

 

Set a recurring appointment on your Outlook calendar once per month to go through this follow up folder for a half hour or so and make sure you haven’t let anything slip too long.  During that appointment also file away any emails that are completed and no longer need to remain as pending. 

 

*Tip: It is a great tactic to move your own sent items that you want to follow up on and make sure they don’t get lost in the shuffle into this tickler folder as well.  Simply drag them from your sent folder to the tickler folder.

 

4.     Projects: If you get a lot of emails per day for a certain project, create a folder for pending items for that specific project.  That way those emails aren’t bogging down your inbox and are ready for your review when you are focused to work on it.  For example, I get hundreds of resumes in my inbox per week.  Upon receipt, or first thing in the morning, I move them all to “_Recruiting to do” – a pending folder I keep in my inbox.  I also move all correspondence from managers or coordinators in there so that the hour or two I spend on that project per day, I can focus on all the new activity at once with full concentration.  When I am done with something from that folder, I move it to a regular archive folder “Resumes and Recruiting”.   You can also set up recurring appointments, as needed, to remind yourself to catch up on those folders, if needed.

 

Keep It In Control

Learn your comfortable limit of action items in your inbox.  Mine is 30 on a good day, 60 on a busy day.  I’ve been to 100 and that was the most I could handle before I pulled a Saturday to catch up on the backlog. 

 

It is ideal to touch things only once if possible.  If you can process something in a minute or two, do it quickly and be free from that task in your life.  If not, put it in the appropriate place and deal with it when it is best for you.

 

With this system, I am almost always aware of things that need action and I can usually find things that have been archived.  I also have an impeccable follow up system so I don’t lose track of things nearly as much. 

 

Other Helpful Tricks

1.     Templates.  Do you send some emails repeatedly now and again?  I do. I have a “_Templates” folder that includes things such as directions how to get to my office or responses I have for candidates so that I can go and just forward the template rather than searching and/or recreating it.  Every moment saved adds up!

2.     Employees.  If you have employees you manage, you can create a folder for their assignments that you don’t want to forget to follow up on.  For example, “_Sarah to do” reminds me of all the things I have asked Sarah to do that I don’t want to forget about.  I drag the sent item into that pending folder.  Prior to our weekly meetings, I go in and see if there is anything in there I want to follow up on.

3.     Reference.  For those great emails you compose that you will want to refer to someday, or for those amazing emails you get from me that you may want to refer to someday, keep them in a “Reference” folder. These should typically be informational emails that you will want to find again at some point.

4.     Posts.  Try using posts to leave yourself quick little notes where you will see them.  Use the same type of organizing rules for them as you do with regular emails.  They are a great way of taking quick notes that won’t get lost.  You can find them by selecting "New Items"  from the ribbon at the top of your inbox, then "More Items" and finally "New Post in this Folder".

Posts look like a little yellow sticky note with a pin in them. 

They act like a regular email message but can be edited.

5 .   Too Much Space.  Do you get the warnings each week that your inbox is too full?  I do.  I have developed a work around with the wonderful guidance of Sandor.  All of the folders I create, except for the “_Tickler” folder are created in the Archive area of my inbox folders.  That way they do not require space from my inbox and are stored directly on my computer.  One bummer of this method is that whatever folders are stored directly as an archive are not viewable on the online access of Outlook.  I do not use the “_Tickler” folder in the archive section because that would disable the follow up flags from working, so I keep that one up in the true inbox folder. 

 

The Big Picture

The whole concept is that your inbox should be a tool that empowers you to be unstoppable.  It should not be a huge maintenance project that requires extra time for you.  Of course this system works best with a great calendaring system… perhaps I will share insights on that soon as well. J  Enjoy!

 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please post a comment! :)

 

 

Action Plan Review

Coordinators help to prepare before Review Meetings so that the time spent in the review high quality.  This is done by first reviewing the quality of the action plan.  After the action plan is agreed to and approved, the Coordinators help to ensure actions are progressing according to plan by double checking the deliverables are what were agreed upon.  If a deliverable is lacking per the plan, they work with the responsible parties to help guide it to a higher quality. 

 

High Level Plan Review by Coordination Team

·        Review the document with a fine-toothed comb on own, prepare a list of questions for the project leader/team

o   Go through each item on the Action Plan and confirm if it is intuitive and understandable by someone who has not been exposed by the project

o   Review the HLP, rate it, and provide suggestions for improvement.  Provide a service by which you improve the plan.

·        Review criteria – with fresh eyes, validate every single cell on the plan:

o   Is the plan clear and organized?

o   Are action items clearly stated and easy to understand?

o   Does each action have a corresponding deliverable?

o   Sequencing:

§  Are the steps relevant to each other

o   Naming:

§  Does each step say what the attachment/responsible party is actually doing, not what not doing

§  Does each tab’s name make sense?

§  Does each column header make sense?

§  How is the categorization/hierarchy?  Could it be improved to be more intuitive?

o   Updated dates – make sure all dates are realistic and in the future.  If in the past, confirm what is the updated expected completion date?

o   Confirm that predecessors are listed and are accurate (each row needs a reference number first)

o   Are you able to comprehend what they are asking for?  If not, have them slow down and rewrite it.

o   Completed deliverables are linked, have appropriate headers (draft, project name), etc.

o   Are priorities clear?

.

 

How to Filter a Best Practice

As you read a best practice, ask these questions:

1.       Is it genuine?

2.       Do you believe it?

3.       Does it serve everyone we care about:

a.       Our people?

b.      Our client?

c.       The planet?

d.      Our vendors?

e.      Our client’s customers?

f.        Our platform?

g.       Our investors?

h.      Our profit?

4.       Is it in the right order?

5.       Are we serving rather than selling?

6.       Is it concise, clear, and focused?

 

Modify to align with these guiding filters. J

Top Qualities of a Good Template

What is a template?  A template is a pattern or model on which something else is based.  It’s focused on structure and is designed to provide a specific layout.

A form or document is an instance of a template that has been applied to a situation with content added.

 

How to make a good template:

1.       It gathers all of the information needed at once and speeds the process.  A good template makes the work that is required during a process move more quickly by capturing all of the information needed to complete the entire process at once.  Everyone ‘downstream’ from the information collector has everything they need to complete their portions of the task as well. 

 

2.       It guides the user to make the collection of information simple.  People want to use a good template because it makes their work easier.  A good template asks questions that guide the person completing the form to come up with the highest quality of information.  It asks the right questions.  There are also time saving tricks such as taking the information that was input and automatically populating a second page that is formatted exactly as needed for the next step in the process.  

 

3.       It is intuitive.  It is welcoming because it’s formatted in a presentable manner and is easy to figure out.  The location of items is logical and it’s simple to know where information is needed to be input to complete the template.  It doesn’t hurt your brain to look at the document and figure out how to use it.  You can look at it without any training and understand what you need to do.  It includes a description of who should use it, when they should use it, and who it goes to once it’s completed. 

 

4.       It’s not overly long.  If a template can be done on one page, that is ideal.  It is important that the template simplifies work and does not become a 20 page document that takes 15 hours and 5 individuals to complete.  As well, if one paper can be used for two functions of the same information, do it.  For example, the top of the form is the information collected and the bottom of the form is for approval rather than requiring a different approval form and manual copying of the same information.

 

5.       It is easy to find and people know about it.  Once the template is created, store it in a location that is easy to find.   Tell people about the template and offer to help show them how to use it.  If it could help a particular individual or team, introduce it in a brief training session where you convey which instances it is useful for, how to use it (complete it for an example task), and what to do with it when you’re done.  Create a storage of the instances in which the template is applied as well so that people can refer to the examples and build upon them easily.