I totally have email overwhelm! I let my email get out of hand again! Geez! How do I let this happen? Well through it all I think I found a better solution finally!

I discovered something new about my ever loyal note-keeper website/app called Evernote.  Now I just have two decisions.  Delete or followup?

If I need to follow up on an e-mail later, then I forward it to Evernote. I (we) are given a unique e-mail address when we sign up with Evernote.  So…any time I send an e-mail to that address, it will show up as a note in Evernote in my default notebook.  How cool is that?

So now I can add in my own comments, attach files if I need (like in followup with a project with a customer), and then use all of Evernote’s features like tags, and reminders to ensure that I schedule the time to follow up. Plus I can find the information I need quickly.

I named my default notebook in Evernote “Action Pending.” That’s where the e-mails I just forwarded show up. Now I just need to schedule these follow ups, and give them context. Some follow ups are just general to-do’s for me. Others are specific. I use tags to organize these.

My basic rule is that everything in my Action Pending notebook MUST have at least one tag. At this point I may have many notes in there, but only the one’s I’ve just forwarded, and any I may have added directly in Evernote, are untagged.  Evernote makes it easy to sort by tag, so all of the untagged notes fall to the top of the list. Now I go through each untagged note in the Action Pending notebook, and I tag them, as well as set calendar reminders if necessary.

Now I can filter my notes in just for “follow up.” This gives me a list of all of the tasks I have for all clients.  Or just to see what I can delegate, as well as see what I am spending my time on. And more time I can spend on doing Customer Love things.

See.. I got rid of email overload once again with Evernote to the rescue! What system to you use to help you stay out of email overwhelm?

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