I’ve come across an e-mail management system that has been working really well for me. It’s simple and easy to implement.

It requires four folders, including your inbox, used as follows.

Inbox: Where all your new mail shows up. Should be empty most of the time.

Archive: Things you want to keep for what ever reason. Reference, CYA, etc.

FollowUp: Things that you can’t deal with in less then two minutes. It is kind of a To Do list.

Hold: Things that you need to follow up on, but are out of your control. i.e shipping notifications about your books from Amazon.

How does this work you ask? Well it’s simple. A new piece of mail shows up in your inbox. If you can deal with it in less then two minutes or so, deal with it then “file it”. By “file it” I mean either delete it or move it the Hold or Archive folders. If you can’t deal with it in less then two minutes then move it to the FollowUp folder.

If there is nothing in your inbox, you should be working your way through the things in your FollowUp folder.

Every once in a while, look through your Hold folder. If your package has arrived from Amazon either delete the notice or Archive it. It’s a great place to find reminders about that information, etc that you have been waiting for from someone.

A note about the Archive folder. Before you move something into it, stop and think. Ask yourself, “Do I really need to keep this?” Something like 95% of all archived e-mails are never referenced again. This is a big storage problem for a lot of companies. They always say “Disk is Cheap”, but not at the enterprise level. If you only need it short term then think about putting it in your hold folder instead.

Enjoy. Hope this helps.