I’ve been using an email strategy for quite some time now. I make folders for every topic, many with sub topics, and put all the email I receive into them. All the mail I send is also in those same categorized folders. MS Outlook has a handy option that lets you keep reply emails in the custom folder it was in from.
The downside of this process is that I’d spend a lot of time filing emails. And since I never really deleted anything meaningful, I ended up with a full mailbox after just a year or two. Long story short, I was driving myself a little crazy.
Now I’m beginning a new policy. I’m deleting all my email. Of course I have to action some of it, transfer it to my to do list, or input it into a project management solution, or a notes or documentation story, etc. But once that’s done I delete the email. This is inbox zero taken to the next level!
We’ll see how it goes.
John DeHope 