Love your Email – (by organizing your inbox)

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with email. We keep expecting it to bring us joy, but never seem to catch up with the flood of emails that come into our inbox every day.

A study by the Radicati Group, (a technology market research firm) in May 2009, discovered there are 247 billion email messages sent per day. With 1.4 billion email users worldwide, that’s about 176 emails per day for each person. Which is WAY to many emails to answer for the 16 hours in the day that we are awake.

Here are some quick tips on how you can eliminate junk in your inbox and learn to love your email again:

Get off email lists – like, NOW! The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 requires that companies get your permission before they send you emails. Although, if you’re not paying attention when you shop online, it’s pretty easy to get tricked into saying yes to solicitations. In this case, don’t delete the email without clicking the “unsubscribe” button. You may have to do this several times a week until you’ve removed yourself from all the lists – but it’s worth the 60 seconds it takes to click a couple of buttons.

Next, learn to say “no.” Be honest with yourself about who you want to receive emails from. If you’re on a list to receive coupons from your favorite store, ask yourself if you’ve used the coupons in the past. Are you saving emails that you’ll get to “someday,” but that day never comes?

Take a moment to visualize the emails that you would LIKE to see in your inbox. Is it a note from your lover? A happy hour invite from your friend? Then write down the names of the people you want to get emails from, and keep a reminder to email these people on a regular basis. Focus on the types of emails that you would like to receive, and think of ways that you can encourage these emails to come into your inbox.

Remember: a clear inbox can put your mind at ease and leave you with more time to correspond with the people you love.

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