Manage Your E-mail

Tip:
If you are like me, you probably spend too much time going through your e-mail. Here are some tried and true strategies for managing your deluge of incoming messages:

• Check your e-mail only three times a day. If you start keeping tabs on how much time you actually spent checking e-mail, you may be surprised.
• Set up filters that send spam, junk, and any unwanted e-mails to a junk folder or deletes them automatically.
• Try to limit the time spent on each e-mail session. You may want to set your timer on your computer to so many minutes and try to stick to it.
• Answer long messages later. Any long response to a message can be done later when you have more time.
• Create folders for messages from groups and individuals so you can refer to them later. You can even set up filters or rules to automatically send messages to those folders to be read later.
• Limit your inbox. Sort, scan, throw away or file any messages so your inbox has less then 50 e-mails left at a time.

Even though I wrote this list, I have trouble following it. It we can learn some strategies and model how to manage our time and e-mail, we can help our teachers who have even more limited time.

Submitted by:Barbara Bray

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