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"This week&amp;#x27;s task that will make your life better? Managing your out-of-control inbox. Email is making us more and more distracted, according to a New York Times article about a new study from Carnegie Mellon University&amp;#x27;s Human-Computer Interaction Lab. No, seriously: Switching gears and checking email constantly can take up to a 20 percent toll on productivity, the researchers found. That&amp;#x27;s huge! Another study shows that constantly looking at work email at home can be a big stressor. But fear not&amp;amp;#8212;there are smart, easy ways to make email less overwhelming. Ready? Refresh! Don&amp;#x27;t Sweat Replying to Every Email Immediately &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t agree that we should strive for inbox zero (where every message has been read/dealt with) every day. [But] the fact is, many of the emails in our inbox do require an action or decision,&amp;quot; says career strategist Jenny Blake. &amp;quot;Don&amp;#x27;t fret over filing everything away instantaneously. I use Gmail&amp;#x27;s Superstars feature to indicate whether an email requires a decision (question mark) or is high-priority (exclamation mark). I also use colored labels for things like &amp;#x27;to watch&amp;#x27; or &amp;#x27;to read&amp;#x27; so that I can quickly find them (or archive those) when I have spare time.&amp;quot; Find Your Email Organizing Style &amp;quot;There are no commandments for organization, since the only &amp;#x27;right&amp;#x27; system is the one that makes natural sense to you,&amp;quot; says entrepreneur and coach Lou Solomon, CEO of Interact. As a communications consultant, I find that clients have an order of preferred, daily communication modes. Most of us function as a writer, verbal communicator, and an in-person connector&amp;amp;mdash;but we prefer one over another.&amp;quot; Blake recommends using task-tracking programs like Trello and Wanderlist&amp;amp;mdash;and many swear by Evernote&amp;amp;mdash;for filing emails related to specific projects (you can also tag items from other programs like Word or Pages, and access from different machines or your phone). Maximize Your Downtime Checking your email when you&amp;#x27;re away from work is totally fine&amp;amp;mdash;but do it when it&amp;#x27;s not taking away from other things in your life. &amp;quot;The key is to check and answer email in idle pockets of time&amp;amp;mdash;when you&amp;#x27;re riding the train to work or sitting in a doctor&amp;#x27;s waiting room,&amp;quot; says Solomon. &amp;quot;As long as you&amp;#x27;re not obsessive and don&amp;#x27;t take your attention away from other people or operating heaving equipment, it&amp;#x27;s OK.&amp;quot; Just make sure [colleagues] know you&amp;#x27;re not at your desk. &amp;quot;Since recipients accept brevity when the email is sent from a device, answering email on the run also frees the sender to take care of people with short, efficient answers.&amp;quot; Know When NOT to Email Earlier this year, Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive went on a digital detox&amp;amp;mdash;a.k.a. no email or social media for a week. And you know what? It&amp;#x27;s an idea we should all steal from time to time. &amp;quot;Everyone deserves a break, and you&amp;#x27;ll be resentful if you go on vacation and feel just as frazzled coming home as when you left by torturing yourself with email monitoring,&amp;quot; says Blake. &amp;quot;I turn to this handy four-part reminder when I find myself getting email anxiety (with the exception of actual emergencies): 1. Nothing is urgent. 2. Everything can wait. 3. I&amp;#x27;m not curing cancer. 4. It will all get done eventually (or I&amp;#x27;ll drop whatever isn&amp;#x27;t important). And more seriously, &amp;quot;Email should never be used to address sensitive topics, including bad news, apologies, or expressions of sympathy,&amp;quot; says Solomon. &amp;quot;An important message is made cold, impersonal, and heartless by email.&amp;quot; Do you have any tricks to managing your emails (and warding off the stress that sometimes comes with them)? Share in the comments below!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2014/07/monday-morning-refresh-how-to>