I get a lot of emails.  Loads and loads of them.

But I seldom misplace or fail to action an email.  And at the end of each day my inbox is usually empty.  Other people I have worked with over the years have often misplaced important emails, or overlooked responding/actioning emails.

I came up with a simple method (which works even better if you use Gmail) but can be implemented easily using any email system.

Firstly, you need two folders, one called follow-up, and one called archive.

When an email comes in, you read it then and there. If it needs a response, but you are not ready to respond, leave it there for now.  If it’s informational, and requires no follow-up move it to archive as soon as you have read it.  If you can respond immediately, do so, then move it to archive.

Over the course of the day, action any emails that you have previously left, then move them to archive.

When you are finished for the day, move all remaining emails to follow-up.  This is very important.

At the start of your next day, anything in your inbox will be new from the end of the previous day.  Do not touch them until you have dealt with the follow-up folder emails first.

This simple approach takes a little bit of getting used to, but remember, emails should be treated as a task orientated tool.  Don’t get bogged down with 1000s of emails in your inbox.

Follow-up (2009-01-02): I found this little gem which I thought was very relevant.

Revisiting The 80/20 Rule and Why It Is Even More Critical To Your Business In 2009