successful home working
Inbox blindness
As a minimalist by nature, I hate it when my inbox contains more emails than I can see all at once – when the dreaded scroll bar appears at the side. Although usually ruthless with the delete key, I like to keep messages there in full view until they have been dealt with, in the belief that seeing them there will remind me to do whatever’s required. But sometimes they build up and I somehow stop seeing the ones towards the bottom.
So my apologies if you’ve had a delayed response from me – it’s nothing personal, just a kind of inbox blindness. And yes, I know I give some cleverclogs advice in my book Work from Home about dealing efficiently with emails (page 89 if you’re interested), but it’s so much easier to give advice than to follow it, don’t you find?
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Thanks for the advice, Leora. I think you must know your way around Outlook much better than I do. I only skim the surface of what’s available and there never seems time to find out what else is lurking there. But I shall refer your comment to my IT Support when he returns and get him to point me in the right direction.
As an aside, I’ve always wondered why some enterprising manufacturer doesn’t make basic appliances for those of us who only ever use 1 or 2 programmes on their washing machine etc. What about a mobile phone that handles phone calls and nothing else? With a manual that’s only 2 pages long? Sounds like bliss to me, especially as the simplicity would be reflected in the price. I’m sure there must be a huge market who don’t want the all-singing, all-dancing versions. Or is it just me? -
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Haha, I hear ya Judy! I’ve got my own voice ringing in my ears around every 40 minutes when I’m at my computer. My advice too all my clients is to move about regularly to avoid tension building in your body. Standing up while you’re on the phone is a good way of getting some extra movement.
As for the inbox fiasco (ok, a little dramatic) I use the flags. Then every other day I take a peak at the FOLLOW-UP folder in the TAST PANEL(if you’re using outlook). Then I reply to them in order of importance. Some of them still sit there a while, but at least they all show up in one please and you don’t have to sift through all your folders to find them individually.