I’ve been on a rulemaking binge lately, and I’m loving it. And you just might be surprised how a few little rules can simplify your business life.
I’m talking about Outlook Rules. While lots of people have Inbox Zero goals, that doesn’t work for me. But having 150 random items piling up isn’t helpful either. So recently I got serious and created a Subscriptions sub-folder in my inbox. I then built rules to move every SmartBrief, Financial Times, MarketingProfs, LinkedIn, Groupon, Sporting News, and other subscription automatically out of my inbox and into that new folder. Now the mail I need stays at the top, and the rest is there to dig in or delete when I’m ready.
Sometimes you just have to have a few rules. What rules have you create to improve your productivity?
Photo by Entressen kirjasto (Flickr).
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I keep my inbox empty by using Gmail’s stars and labels to organize my emails. And I rely on Google Reader to keep my RSS feeds and blog postings (including yours) organized and ready for me to read whenever I have time. Delicious is also very helpful for a more permanent online filing system.
I enjoy your blog and your IABC columns. Thank you.
Penny–It sounds as though you’ve put in place some great systems for staying on top of the growing volume of valuable information. Aren’t Google Reader’s tagging and “what’s new” features terrific?
I go back and forth on using Delicious. Google Chrome just unveiled a bookmark syncing tool, which just may be the better solution for me.
Thanks for stopping by! –Daria