Bursting at the Seams

You have had a fantastic holiday and then you return home to an email inbox that is fit to burst!  Do you cry, delete them all or do you get to work and start filing? Find out what Liz Chasteauneuf does to tackle this.

How do you tackle this?  A trusted colleague once suggested that I delete all my emails on my return from my holiday, if they’re important the person will email you again.  I wonder if this approach would work?

I’ve found over the years to have a type of ‘return from holiday sorting system’.  I love the delete button so, firstly, I delete all the sales and generally what I’d term as ‘clutter’ emails from the ‘All Mail’ list.  I use a colour coding for emails that I’ve been copied into, purple for C.c. (and that’s a whole new subject that annoys me – copying in the world to every email or butt covering).  The Cc: field is generally used to keep people in the loop (FYI) with no expectation of a reply being required.  So, I tend to ignore these and action the emails where I’m in the “To” field.

Every day is a learning day - Know the Difference Between “To” and “CC” in an Email.

We designate the To: field for who has the action (could be multiple people). Cc: is simply for their information—with no expectation that they will take action on the email, other than receive it.

I tend then to use the four D’s of time management – I’ve already used the first one: ‘Delete it’, ‘Delegate it’, ‘Do It’ (if it can be completed in a few minutes) or ‘Defer It’ (I flag these to come back to them).