DEVELOPMENT in-tray ) should be sparse or empty . Otherwise , all the emails and folders will overload and overwhelm your brain .
4
It ’ s a security risk : Hackers break into networks all the time . Chances are , particularly in HR , many of those emails contain sensitive and personal information about others .
What to do instead
Introducing the onemonth email rule
EAs , you should archive – or even delete – any email that ’ s more than a month old suggests Donna McGeorge
THE EXPERT
Donna McGeorge is a speaker , author and mentor who helps people make their work work . Using a creative , practical approach , she improves workplace effectiveness while challenging thinking on leadership , productivity and virtual work . ‘ The First 2 Hours : Make Better Use of Your Most Valuable Time ’ is published by John Wiley .
Once upon a time I used to keep every email I got because I mistakenly thought I might need it again , usually to point out something someone said they ’ d do , and then they didn ’ t . If , like old me , you tend to hold on to all of your old emails thinking you might need them in the future , here are four reasons why you might want to reconsider :
1
You won ’ t need them : Despite 11 , 000 odd emails in 250 folders , chances are you ’ ve only gone back two or three times to retrieve something . And when you do go looking , can you be sure you ’ ll find it anyway ? These emails are using up a lot of mental and physical capacity .
2
Frees up space which improves computer performance : If your IT department isn ’ t already onto you to reduce your saved emails , they soon will be . Many of us are given gigabytes or even terabytes of space to store our stuff , which feels huge but fills up quickly .
3
It ’ s overwhelming : Some of you reading this might be old enough to remember in-trays on your desk – email was meant to emulate that . Something comes in , gets processed , and then moved on . Email was not meant to be a storage app so your inbox ( and
Apply the 30-day rule : Delete any email older than 30 days , including all those folders . If that makes you feel uncomfortable , create an archive folder and dump the whole lot in there . That way , they aren ’ t gone – they ’ re just out of the way . Do it right now … Select and drag !
Scan incoming email : In his book Smart Work , Dermot Crowley has some great advice for handling email . He explains there are three types : w Action : Requires a planned and considered response ( usually only 10 percent of incoming email ) w Information : Read and delete w Junk : Unsubscribe and delete
Create a ‘ Done ’ folder : You don ’ t need all those email folders . They ’ re not helping when you need to find things , and are only clogging up the system . What you need is a short term ( 30 days ) way to hang on to emails that you may need to recall for projects and such . Here ’ s how it works : w Open the message w Attend to it accordingly w Drag it out of your inbox and into the ‘ Done ’ folder w Create a rule to automatically delete or archive emails when they ’ re more than 30 days old .
Here ’ s your get out of jail free card Working on a specific project ? Create a short-term folder for messages related to it and once its finished – you guessed it – drag the folder into ‘ Done ’.
And finally … Most of our email productivity problems come about because we don ’ t have a system for managing them . We operate out of a default setting that says we open emails first thing , spend most of our day dipping in and out of them and ( because we ’ re tired , overwhelmed and suffering from decision fatigue ) we hang on to everything . It ’ s time to consciously decide on a system for managing your email . Start with the 30-day rule and trust me , your future self will thank you . S donnamcgeorge . com
58 Executive PA | Winter Issue 2023