Oh, the almighty in-box! Not one of us has “Answer tons of e-mails” as part of our job description, yet it is remarkable how much time we all spend doing just that. Our job is to be responsive-and there is little that requires more “response” than our e-mail in-box. The GTD[1] people tell us that the average businessperson receives 228 e-mails per day. Wow! Even if you only get half or a third that many, if you don’t have a system for managing and deleting them, by the end of one week you can have 300-1,000 to-dos added to your list. In a month, that would be anywhere from 1,200-4,000. In a year… you get the idea. Your in-box owns you!

Key habits to change:

• Stop using your in-box as a storage area for e-mails you hope to get to later. You have probably heard of the 2-minute rule. If it can be done in 2 minutes or less, DO IT; otherwise file it in a folder, add it to a list or drag it to your calendar. It cannot stay in your in-box. And be careful about just printing things out and putting them in a pile. A pile is not an action list.
• Start by setting up folders for key items in your e-mail. Create a new folder for key clients, your boss, family stuff, funny e-mails, etc. This way you can quickly drag and drop those e-mails you feel you need to keep while you are cleaning out.  Over time you will do this less and less but it is critical at first.
• Stop cherry-picking e-mails. Do them as they come in and get out of the habit of picking out the important stuff and neglecting the rest. Once you get into the habit of starting at the most recent and working from there you will see how much more efficient you can be.

Now, get down to ZERO e-mails once per week. Yes, this is the goal. But even if you get down to 20 you will be a “rock star” in a time management sense. The easiest way to do this is to sort your in-box by the sender’s name and spend time deleting, deleting and deleting some more-starting with the letter “a”. Be brutal. Some people have so much that they need to sort by date and must delete everything in a certain date range-like 2008, for example. Having thousands of e-mails is an indicator of how disorganized you are-not how important you are. Find a system that works for you. It might take you six hours the first time, but then if you do it weekly you can stay on top of it and truly dominate your in-box.

When in doubt-throw it out.

TIME IQ QUIZ

Most professionals report feeling overwhelmed, stressed-out by competing priorities, and—at least occasionally—frazzled and unclear about the best direction to take on a project. Professional burnout is at an all-time high, causing people to feel exhausted, cynical, and ineffective both at home and work. But there is hope. If you are ready—take a deep breath and focus on you, your brain, and your Time IQ.

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CAREER CHANGE READINESS QUIZ

Though the prospect of a new start is refreshing don’t forget the fundamentals of having an eye-catching and current resume, writing a great cover letter, brushing up on your interview skills, and most of all presenting yourself as the complete package! Before you take that leap, take this quick quiz to make sure you are completely prepared.

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