Imagine going into work and you have several dozen assignments on your desk. Some of these are finished, some are brand new and haven’t even been looked at yet, and some are partially done. Can you relate?

Now imagine they’re all mixed up. You need to find a specific assignment, so you search through all of them until you get to the one you need…ten minutes later.

While it may be a practice you often do, it does seem kind of pointless, right? In a perfect world, you’d have your outstanding projects and tasks organized in a way that’ll help you determine what to work on first and remind you of where you left off on unfinished deliverables.

Let’s take it one step even further. 

Imagine you get a new assignment put on your desk. But instead of looking at it to see what you need to do, you instead file it away in a filing cabinet with all the other assignments you’ve done previously. You finish your day and then go home. The following morning you return to work, ready to tackle whatever comes your way…but there’s a problem. 

What about that assignment you filed away yesterday? You didn’t even look at it! How can you possibly remember it exists? You just stuffed it in a drawer and left it there to be forgotten. It would be like the mailman dropping off letters and you immediately put them inside a filing cabinet. In a day or two, you’re going to forget all about it. How are you supposed to remember you have new mail if you file it in a drawer meant for old mail? 

Get the picture?

That’s why it’s important that you have a proper email folder system, that you put new mail, new to do items, in a separate workflow – with other mail you still need to get to – before you file it away to collect dust. It’s almost like a visual to-do list (rather than a written one).

And guess what…your email is exactly the same. 

Why would you drag and drop a new email into a reference folder you rarely check? It’s counterintuitive to proper workflow, because you’re subconsciously telling yourself that you’re done with that email. So instead of checking it, reading through it, making sure there isn’t something important that needs to be completed, it slowly drifts away in your memory – like a log down a lazy river. Before you know it, the log (email) is out of sight, and therefore, out of mind.

Without a proper email filing system, you’ll find yourself barely able to tread water because you’ll be in a constant state of catching up. You’ll be hunting through folders to find emails and files you should have gotten to before, or missing important deadlines.

This is not a good way to be an efficient, organized professional, and I think you’d agree.

But how is this level of organization accomplished, you might ask…Well, you don’t need to guess what methods will work best. Fortunately, I’ve been working on this exact issue for years. I’ve seen countless professionals with even the most unruly of inboxes take control and get organized like never before.

The secret is the ARTT™ Email Productivity System. ARTT™ is a process that took one inbox that had over one million emails, and brought it down to nearly zero. Yes, you read that correctly, one million emails, down to zero.  And, that professional still leaves the office most days with less than twenty emails in her inbox (and not because she doesn’t receive a lot of emails).  

So if you think your inbox is out of control, like an overgrown lawn, I have the landscaping tools guaranteed to return it to pristine condition. 
If you’re ready to achieve the realistic goal of “Inbox Zen” and learn how to spend purposeful and intentional time with your inbox so that it serves you the way you need it to, sign up for a free webinar to learn more about the ARTT™ Email Productivity course. I will personally introduce a new way of thinking about email, show you step-by-step how to conquer your inbox, and build a routine that causes less stress and allows you to get more done each day.