Exit Email Hell in 3 Steps
By: Mark Joyner
Here's one of the many things I do to cut down email overload.
We've been asking everyone for years at Simpleology to stop checking their email throughout the day - and to only check it after they have done their Daily Target Praxis (see Simpleology 101) and completed their Daily Targets.
This has an immediate positive effect on your productivity. It's like magic.
But if you've been using Simpleology you already know this.
Here are three steps you can take to cut down the email noise even more:
Step 1. Say goodbye to your current email address.
Let's face it - if you're getting pummeled with spam it's not gonna stop. Yes, you can use SpamArrest and other tools like that, but over time the SpamArrest filter box becomes just another inbox to check. You have to check it for false positives or risk losing mail.
So, what do you do?
You dump it. Forever.
Ask your sys admin or ISP to put up this autoresponder message:
Sorry, this email box is no longer valid. To learn how to contact me, please visit (YOUR WEBSITE HERE).
More about that in a minute.
2. Set up 5 email boxes as follows.
Your ISP may already provide you with multiple email accounts - if not, set up 5 Gmail accounts (you can access them all from the same copy of Outlook)
You'll need one email box for personal friends and family. Give that one out to ... you guessed it.
You'll need one for general business contacts. You give this one out to potential contacts you meet via your business card, your website, etc. (Tip: you should use a contact form or otherwise protect your address from spam-bots.) If you're like me you'll have someone else monitor this box for you and only send you stuff that's important.
You'll need a third box for "close" business contacts. These are people you work with daily, extremely important contacts, "mission critical" notifications (like the ones you get from Simpleology - hey, when you read us you get more time back than you put in), etc. You can "promote" certain people to this email box as needed.
You'll need a fourth box that you use to "sign up for free stuff." Every time you subscribe to a newsletter you'll use this address.
You'll need a fifth and final box for making online purchases. You guessed it ... Buy stuff - use this address.
So, how does this help?
Read on ...
3. Filter into 5 separate folders.
You can do this with most email clients. If you use Outlook (most of us do), for example, you'll use the "Rules Wizard."
You just have to create 5 folders in Outlook (corresponding to the 5 email boxes listed above) and then tell the Rules Wizard to send the email that comes in to each of those accounts to the corresponding folder.
How does this help?
Well, it should be obvious, but give it a shot and you'll see.
After I do my Daily Target Praxis and finish my Daily Targets, then I check my folder for emails from Close Business Contacts. If you've done this properly, this box should be 100% spam free.
I'll either answer the emails in this folder on the spot or add new items to my Dream Catcher (for processing in the next day's DTP).
Then I can peruse my other inbox folders at my leisure.
Side Note: If any of you guys want to turn this into a youtube video to make this system easier for folks to follow, go for it. I'll post about the first/best video tutorial I see in the blog. Just make sure you show folks how to read this original blog post in the video and also show them how to set up a Simpleology account - it's a vital part of the system. Post a link to your tutorial in the comments section and I'll keep my eye out for it.
Comments
I pretty much do exactly this but forward all the email to gmail..
This helps with spam (gmails spam filter is amazing..)
I filter all non essential mail (by the email address it was sent to) into the archive and tag it so i can review it as i please.
I weened myself off outlook ( i had email checking OCD big time.. by doing this).
Its amazing how much tension a full inbox can bring to a day.
If its important.. they'll call.
Dear Mark or another friend, how can this advice be followed with gmail?
SB
Ask your sys admin or ISP to put up this autoresponder message:
Sorry, this email box is no longer valid. To learn how to contact me, please visit (YOUR WEBSITE HERE).
Hi,
Another hint with gmail -- instead of setting up five different accounts you can use the "+" sign after your original email address --
Say your email address is iamthebest@gmail.com.
If you want to filter your mail, you can add the following to it:
iamthebest+listname@gmail.com
and you can then do some very creative filtering!
Just a thought.
- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com
Gee, I gotta try this. I am a chronic email checker. I've got several different accounts that I check several times a day. I'm on a mac - so perhaps I'll use the gmail I already have to filter stuff.
Okay. Massive action is about to be taken!
It also saves the time of checking multiple email accounts.
FIVE e-mail boxes sounds like a headache to keep track of. I like Mike Vizdos' idea of filtering e-mails through gmail though. I am just not exactly sure how that works?
Note from MJ: Clara, it's totally not a headache - that's what the Rules Wizard in Outlook is for. You can add unlimited email accounts to Outlook and the Rules Wizard will send them to whatever folder you specify. Then you only check the category of email that's relevant to you. It beats the heck out of scanning through mountains of spam in one inbox to find stuff that's relevant.
Shaul, in gmail to do this:
Ask your sys admin or ISP to put up this autoresponder message:
Sorry, this email box is no longer valid. To learn how to contact me, please visit (YOUR WEBSITE HERE).
Use the Vacation Responder. Click Settings->General and you can put in any message you want (doesn't say anything about vacation).
Great tips. One that I got a lot out of doing was actually unsubscribing from newsletters and info from sites I either wasn't ready for at that particular time, or I truly didn't need the information they were offering. By eliminating, in other words, unsubscribing from unnecessary sites makes a huge difference. You can always go back to them at a later time -- if you truly need to!
Jeanne
http://www.goalsnaspirations.com
In Outlook 2007 it gets even easier. You can set the account settings to go to specifc folders bypassing the need to write rules.
In Outlook 2003 all email from all accounts starts in a common inbox so the rules approach is necessary.
I have separate accounts for the types listed and have an account for "reading." My newsletters (like Simpleology News" go to that account and are filed in their own folder. I usually read that one first or second. I'd rather learn something new ASAP than wade through the other stuff.
I also use rules with the notices and alerts feature for financial stuff or other important email. I file the email using a rule and use the alert to remind me.
Lastly, I have a couple of rules where I set an alert for me and forward the email to my wife since she is the one that needs to address those specific emails. I need to know, but she needs to do.
Hi Mark,
You can also do the same thing with Yahoo! Mail. You get 20 free rules with the free email account, it's a breeze to set up, eg mail from Simpleology, put it in the Simpleology folder. However it's not as comprehensive as your method.
If you have 5 different email accounts, how do you use aliases to respond or send mail out through Outlook so that it appears that you're sending from whichever email account you're using? Does Outlook handle this easily? Also, Outlook's handling of IMAP is horrendous. Are there any tools or add-ons out there that allow for efficient IMAP handling in Outlook? Mozilla Thunderbird allows aliases and easily cleans up IMAP with a single menu command. Outlook requires you to "Purge Deleted Messages" for each individual folder - and no keyboard shortcut! Ugh! Thanks!
Note from MJ: Hi Ed, when you set up an account in Outlook it will ask you to specify the address - all this is handled automatically. As for IMAP - I have no idea as I use POP on all of my email accounts. Outlook, for all of its shortcomings, has worked well for me.
I like this idea to clean up my emails. I have a yahoo.com , and sasktel.net address. I like the phone support with my local server,but yahoo came with my Acer laptop. I also tried Firefox- but we did not seem to be compatible! So many decisions. How would I getall my current saved e-mails into the 5 seperate e=mails suggested.And would the 5 be the same basic address, with maybe a different # with each, to seperate them?
Good stuff Mark...here's a thought though: What do you do when you want to e-mail all "close" people to you, which include both personal friends (let's say you have a lot, 100), and close co-workers (25) -- AND you don't have them listed neatly in your address book...but you have e-mailed them all in the past...
Off the top of your head you're not able to write all their names down...so you decide to "go through the alphabet," in your 'To:' box -- that way you just select "a", and then quickly scroll through the name's that start with "a" -- you do this for the rest of the alphabet too...great idea, BUT -- Let's say with all the people you e-mail from your outlook, there are thousands. Because of that, each time you type in a letter in the "To:" area, 100's of names for each alphabet letter will pop up...It's going to take you quite some time to find your 125 people to e-mail...
Any great ideas on that? :)
Take care bud,
--Sean
Note from MJ: Hey Sean until we have more-psychic AI running our software, creating a group of these close friends manually is probably the only practical way to do it. :-) BTW, when are you going to come work for us?
Great suggestions, Mark...
I know I am a little late to this conversation, but I have a very similar system setup. but without Outlook.
If you have a Mac, simply use MailPlane (www.mailplaneapp.com). You can have as many gmail accounts setup as you like, and check them all very easily.
If you have a PC, just use gmail's "Add account" option along with forwarding. Simply forward all mail from your separate accounts into one gmail account, and setup filters and labels.
Its quite easy, and eliminates outlook from the equation, if that works better for you.
BTW, this also fixes the problem brought up by shawn, since your inboxes are still technically separate.
Hi Mark
Great tips! I've posted a video on YouTube which will help people implement the strategy with Gmail & Outlook.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDk2M47XJ4U
Hope this helps!
Deborah :-)
www.myvirtualpartner.com
On April, 08 Mike Vizdos wrote: Instead of setting up five different accounts you can use the "+" sign after your original email address --
Say your email address is iamthebest@gmail.com.
If you want to filter your mail, you can add the following to it:
iamthebest+listname@gmail.com
--------
I would like to use this solution instead of 5 different email accounts but I didn`t understood how this works?
Mike or somebody else who understood this, please specify on this. Thanks in advance.
interesting idea. I think that most people could just do this with better filtering - if you use something like gmail that allows you to add things to your email address - as in username+shop@domain
and things like that.
We have simplified things to one personal and one work inbox and then use filters to keep things in check.
great list, thanks for sharing.
This is a good post. I too am a slave to my email. To add insult to injury, I'm a blackberry user. I combine multiple emails and my work email on one phone. The result.... once every 3 weeks... I just delete EVERYTHING :)
I do prefer email. It's the only service I have where I don't even check the spam box!
I would have written earlier to congratulate you on the article, but I was busy sorting out my mailboxes and deciding which address to use for comments!
Good article, well written!
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