Clean Out Your Inbox Week - Day 4: Defer

Welcome to the fourth of four posts on cleaning out your inbox for #‎CleanInbox‬ week. In this final installment we're going to talk about what you're going to do with all of the emails you have left over after you've deleted, delegated or done your emails.

After I deleted, delegated and did my work emails I still had 56 left. This was actually a preliminary delete. I'm on a few email lists and most of the emails have nothing to do with me but I still get them. After going through the remaining 56 emails, I had 3 left that I needed to keep. So, I deferred them by creating tasks to follow up...which is easy to do with Microsoft Outlook.

For my personal emails, I used Evernote a lot. And at this point I have zero emails in my work and personal inboxes.

Defer

Up until this time last year I would've told you to just create a followup folder in your inbox and to setup reminders to look at them. But I got an email from Linda Arrowwood, who's in my SendOutCards downline, about a webinar on Evernote. She asked me if I used Evernote and I told her no. I'd heard of it and had downloaded it about 2 years ago. But after watching the webinar, I was sold on using Evernote to store everything, including deferred emails. This is a tool I'm adding to my SYSTEM toolbox. Thanks Linda!

What is Evernote and why am I using it to store deferred emails? Evernote is a tool (an app, as well as a website) for storing, organizing and accessing almost anything! You can save a website, photo, email…practically anything and then store it into a "notebook". And then search for the info with a very powerful search engine (which will also search the words in your photos!). There are two main reasons that I like Evernote for storing deferred emails. 

1. You get an email address with your Evernote account so you can forward your emails to it easily
2. You can easily setup reminders to let you know it's time to followup with your email

Here is a screenshot of my Evernote account:

On the right is an email that I wanted to defer, about a webinar by my friend Michele Reynolds. I wanted to attend the webinar but I didn't have time to look at the details at the time, so I forwarded it to Evernote. Even though I didn't do it with this email, I could've set a reminder (clock icon in upper right corner) to remind me to look at this later. I was driving at the time of this webinar last night so I couldn't watch it, but I'll check out the replay.

Evernote is also excellent for storing the emails you want to keep for reference. I highly recommend the webinar by Steve Dotto. It lasts an hour but it's worth it!

Interesting days

Today -Data Privacy Day, Kazoo Day and Blueberry Pancake Day

Tomorrow - International Fun At Work Day,  Curmudgeons Day, Puzzle Day, Freethinkers Day and Cornchip Day

Next Thursday - Thank A Mailman Day, Stuffed Mushroom Day and Homemade Soup Day

February 28 - Tooth Fairy Day, Floral Design Day and Chocolate Soufflé Day Check out this recipe