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Simplify Your Inbox

THE AVERAGE employee spends 28 percent of her time managing email, according to a 2012 McKinsey Global Institute report. Keep your inbox from overflowing into your life:

CHECK EMAIL FIVE TIMES when you get to work, midmorning, at lunch, midafternoon and before you leave, says Randy Dean, a time management consultant in East Lansing, Michigan

USE THE TWO MINUTE RULE if you can deal with an email in two minutes or less, do it. If not, make a note on your to-do list and take care of it later, during the time you’ve set aside for long emails.

COLOR-CODE YOUR MESSAGES in Outlook, you can use the automatic-formatting feature to set this up. (For instructions search “change message colors” at microsoft.com/outlook).

 

Credit: This article first appeared in the February 2014 edition of More magazine

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