Do you ever feel like it’s all too much? Every Thursday, I share one action, habit, or project you may want to undertake in order to improve your health, happiness, and sense of well-being.

PROJECT OF THE WEEK

Woah! I’ve had a lot of feedback about Your Inbox: From Overwhelmed to Zero.

Apparently, there are a lot of feelings about managing an inbox! We can all acknowledge that email can be overwhelming. As it’s evolved over the years, I think it’s fair to say it has not all been positive.

It's important to remember that email is a tool to support your success and not a core job responsibility to fulfill.

Looking at email as a to-do list that prioritizes everyone else's needs can be a helpful way to place boundaries around your inbox. The requests listed in your email need to be prioritized in line with all your other responsibilities.

Last week, I wrote an in-depth look at taking your inbox from overwhelming to manageable. Below are my favorite tools that can make a big difference in how you manage your email, and more importantly, how you feel.

Happy Spaces’ Tips & Tricks to Managing Email

Snoozing Emails

Snoozing an email allows you to archive an email from your inbox and have it pop back into your email inbox at a set date and time.

You can always check the "Snoozed Email" folder if you need to reference it prior to that date.

There are many situations where this feature may be helpful. Below are a few examples:

Let's say you schedule a flight or hotel a few months ahead of time. While you do not want that email sitting in your inbox for a few months, you may feel better knowing that it will pop back in the day before.
You may have a set day of the week and time of day that you work on a client's account. It may be helpful to have any communication that is still "in progress" pop back in an hour before it's time to work on it.
You may receive an email with a bill to pay, but it's not actually due for six weeks. It may be easier to snooze the email and have it pop back in on the day you want to pay it.

Scheduling Emails

Scheduling emails allows you to answer emails anytime that is convenient for you, while setting the date and time that your recipient will receive them.

This has two benefits:

First, this allows you to have some control over when you are getting a response. While it may be convenient for you to send an email at 5:30 AM, before the kids wake up, you may not want to get a reply until you have dropped them off at daycare and are at your desk around 8:00 AM. Writing the email at 5:30 AM, but scheduling for it to be sent at 8:00 AM, solves that problem.

Second, this allows you to clear out your emails and work on projects when it is most convenient for you, while also being respectful of everyone else's time and priorities. For example, it may be beneficial for you to work for an hour on Saturday mornings; however, emailing your employees or colleagues a bunch of additional to-do's on a Saturday morning, will no doubt add stress to their weekend, even if the expectation is that they don't have to work on any of it until Monday.

Color-Coding Emails

Color is an amazing tool. It allows you to recognize and categorize items before you even know what they are. I would recommend color-coding any emails that you plan to snooze and have pop back into your inbox.

Below are a few ideas of categories you may want to designate:

Reference items - Such as reservations, meeting logistics info, etc.
Waiting on an important response
Items to purchase / Bills to pay
In-progress client communication
Video to watch / Podcast to listen to
To-Do items

Color-Coding is a great tool; however, it needs to be used in addition to, not in place of, incorporating any email-derived tasks into the system that you use to hold and manage your tasks and projects. Using email as a to-do list is not an effective use of your time and leads to procrastinating what's important, by doing what's in front of you.

Pro Tip: Both Outlook and G-Suite have the above features built-in.

Additional Resource

Boomerang is a tool with many additional features that may further support you in managing your email. One of my favorite features is that if your recipient has not replied to an email you sent them by a time that you set, your sent email will pop back into your inbox. Boomerang Basic is free to use and explore!

A Note from Happy Spaces

The goal is to add value to your life. If you think this project will add value:

Estimate how long you think it will take. I would recommend doubling the time you estimate.
Look at your calendar over the next week and pick a date and time to get started.
Make an appointment on your calendar for the estimated time.
If you estimate that completing this project will take longer than one hour, I recommend doing it over multiple days. This will support you in getting started!
Prior to starting this project, take a few minutes to make a step-by-step list of EVERY action you need to take to complete this project.
It's not all or nothing. You can choose to implement only the parts of this project that add value to your life.
An Accountability Partner can be a great support in following through on your goals and commitments.

We understand how challenging it can be to implement new habits and systems. For additional support please go to HappySpacesBySarah.com.

Creating a life you don't need a vacation from! ®

Sincerely,

Sarah Weingarten

Meet Sarah

Growing up as the oldest of nine siblings in Upstate New York, I learned to use organization to create sanity among the chaos. Today, I work together with individuals, families, and small businesses to create habits, systems, and spaces that support their needs, goals, and dreams. Clients often refer to our work together as "life-changing" and "better than decades of therapy". What I love most about my work is the lasting impact it has on real people's lives. Nothing makes me happier than hearing the many success stories of clients I have worked with.

Snoozing, Scheduling, and Color-Coding - Oh, my!