Combating Information Overload
Do you get overwhelmed by emails into your inbox? It can so distracting, and takes away time and energy from your work. Not to mention, it can create stress from information overload.
Is there a simple way of managing your emails? Well, in a word, yes.
If you've been on the internet for any length of time, you'll probably have subscribed to a newsletter or two. However, it's more likely you're receiving tons of emails from different authors and companies that clog up your email inbox.
And you've probably subscribed to these lists because you were interested in the information that the authors were providing you. Short of unsubscribing, what can you do?
If you're like me, I receive tons of emails from the different lists that I've subscribed to. So much that instead of allowing me to focus on what I want to do, the emails have just become a distraction. Not to mention that I have to set aside time and energy to clear my inbox when it gets too crowded.
This is where the value of categorization comes in useful, especially if you want a quick and easy method of managing the emails that come into your inbox.
Step One: Sort out the information categories of your email
What I did was sort out the main types of mass email I get, which are related to internet marketing and trading online. For example, two categories are:
1. Internet Marketing Related
2. Trading Related
Keep the main categories broad enough without breaking them up into niches. You'll understand why in the next step.
Step Two: Create one free email account per category
The next thing to do is to create 2 free email accounts, using gmail for each category. You can use other free email services, but it so happens that I use Gmail from Google, and they have tons of storage space.
You can understand now why I suggest just using the main category and not break it down further. You'll only want to handle a limited number of free email accounts, instead of creating another huge list of free email accounts to manage.
Step Three: Change the subscription details for each list you're subscribed to
The next step is then to go through all the current emails in your Inbox, and changed the subscription details to your free email accounts. In this example, I redirected all the internet marketing related lists to my account dedicated to internet marketing, and the same for trading related emails.
This way, you can still remain subscribed to the lists you're interested in, but without being overwhelmed by the number of emails that keep pouring into your Inbox. You can always log into your email accounts during your free time, and catch up on news and updates as necessary.
Step Four: Slow and Steady
You could do all your subscribed lists at one shot, if you're subscribed only to a few. But if you're subscribed to a large number of lists like me, it'll probably be more productive to do this email re-direction over a period of a week or two.
As for paid services and products, you might want to stick with your primary personal email. I use my main personal email account still as I want to make sure I get any updates or notifications on time. It's only the free information or lists that get delegated to my free email accounts.
Summary
Managing information is crucial to keeping focused on your goals. With so much information available today, it's easy to get distracted and lose sight of your primary goal. Information overload can also cause you stress, especially if you're already busy with other projects.
Keeping Separate email accounts for Emails Newsletters, News etc is is a simple, straightforward way to manage information. Configure those free Email accounts in Taroby, along with your Primary Email accounts. It's an easy way you can adopt in removing distracting emails from your primary Inbox, and also access those emails when you need them without switching Applications.
Source: EzineArticles
Related articles
- 10 Tips for Managing Information Overload (edtechpower.blogspot.com)
- How to Handle Information Overload (webdesignerdepot.com)