Business Success Strategies

4 Steps to Ease eMail Clutter
More about eMail from BIG Mike McDaniel

You can't go to the store and buy an eMail Clutter Broom and swish it away with a squirt of the magic formula, but you can build daily eMail habits to avoid clutter meltdown.

Here are 4 big ideas to keep your eMail on a diet.

SAY NO TO SAYING NO

Each time you "click here to remove" you are confirming that you are a real person, your eMail address works, and best yet- your read your mail. Your name will now go on many more lists. When you say "Remove Me", the message received is " Double My Spam".

The only reason spam keeps coming is that it works. By sending millions of offers at a time, the small percentage of people that believe in the free lunch will cough up the credit card numbers and the spam just keeps on a'comin'.

DR PEPPER IT

As eMail moves into a major role in daily communication, it becomes doubly important for your to check your mail every day (or more often). Mail stacks up at your ISP (the place where you pay the monthly fee to access the Internet) until you check your mail, then it is download into your computer.

The glut of Spam alone can exceed your holding limit at the ISP when you let it go for more than a day. AOL (among others) bounces incoming eMail if you don't download it to you computer on a regular basis.

The Dr Pepper soft drink people advertised to get people to drink the Pepper Upper at 10, 2 and 4. They even put a clock on the bottle caps and in the ads. You should Dr Pepper your eMail, check it 3 times a day.

DELETE FIRST, ASK QUESTIONS LATER

Use the DELETE key without hesitation!There is no law that says you must open and read every message your receive. You pitch that junk mail at home right in the trash without opening it, do the same with eMail.

Don't open eMail from people you don't know Remember that old telephone axiom "If it's important they'll call back", same with eMail. Important mail comes from people you know and names you recognize.

If your eMail program has a preview pane, you can see part of the message before you open it. If you see fancy graphics and color, the message was sent in HTML language. Some virus creeps have figured ways to release bugs when you open that kind of message (the most common virus attack is thru attachments - never open an attachment from someone you don't know, no matter what the compelling message about it says !!)

USE 2DO and 3D

Your eMail inbox can fill up so much the list of messages will bleed off the top of the screen. If you use the inbox as a holding box, there will be hundreds of messages not displayed, unless you move to the top of the list. Worse, some SPAM arrives without a date, or with a 1980 date, either of which puts the message at the top of your pile, maybe off the screen.

Keep the inbox empty, daily, by practicing 2DO. If you can deal with it in TWO minutes, DO it. If it is going to take longer, move it to an action file and deal with it later. Apply the 3Ds to all eMail.DEAL with it, DISK it (save it somewhere else on your hard drive) or DUMP It.

As eMail clutter gluts mailboxes everywhere, it is ever more important for you to find ways to shave seconds, minutes and hours from your time at the keyboard.

© 2004 BIG Mike McDaniel, All Rights Reserved MailTo:Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.com BIG Mikes is a Professional Speaker and former Major Market TV News Anchor. http://BIGIdeasGroup.com For another article by BIG Mike, read "I'm a Second Story Man" MailTo:SecondStory@BigIdeasGroup.com Subscribe to "BIG Mike's BIG Ideas" Newsletter MailTo:subscribe-956603364@ezinedirector.net