How to progress from backlog?

When I have been back from my forced break for 2 weeks now and I am taking it very slow. But my biggest problem is how to get through all the stuff that has piled up over the week I was off line. For days it felt like one step forward and 3 steps back.

I would read heaps of emails and then my inbox would fill up again. So I had to get tough. I have decided that I need to unsubscribe from lists. I do this about every 6 months or so. You might need to do it more frequently.

1. First decide with category emails are coming in:

• friends
• family
• works
• information
• learning
• fun.

2. Set up rules in your emails

• Friend and Family go to a selected folders
• Works can be diverted to dedicated folders.
• newsletters and blog posting can diverted to other folders.

3. Make a list of your most frequent emails. I usually work on 10 at a time.

4. Every time you receive an email from this list read it and decide if this was useful. Tick if it was or Cross if it was not.

5. At the end of a week look at the number of ticks and cross - if you had more crosses than ticks - unsubscribed from this newsletter. It is taking up more time than you need.

Remember some item or programs you download automatically add you to their email lists e.g. itunes. Decide if you really find this useful.

Some emails are from products that have been free. Great marketing tool but does the extra information really serve you now.

Sometimes you have subscribe to 2 or 3 lists to decided which is the best one. If the lists give you the same information but at different times. Focus on what have the best information or the extra information.

There are a lot of decision to be made. Make the time to make the decision and yes it will have to made regularly because our tastes change. What was important to you a year ago may not be relevant today.

At the moment I seems to be unsubscribed from a lot of stuff. And it is taking a bit of time but I am looking forward to next week when my downloaded unread emails no longer reach 3 digits.

If you feel that you still need all newsletters from months and years ago - I suggest that they are either all excellent and constantly change to meet you interests (tell me about them) or you have not changed in your thoughts and ideas. I would suggest to live a little and step out of your comfort zone. Try something different.

Now back to my emails

Leona