Every year in the beginning of summer, I go through my four email accounts and sort through my inboxes with all the unread newsletters and other communication. I have various email accounts for various purposes, but some things might overlap. When I sat with this over the weekend, I realized that each email was like an item on my To Do-list. An item to handle and choose what to do with. Can and do we want to directly? Not always.

In the beginning when I started writing newsletters for my coaching business in 2002, it was common to only send one out, once a week, or even once a month. This way, it became something to look forward to (and mine became the foundation for my books) and even to plan accordingly with any events. Nowadays, a well meaning organization can send once a day, which creates a multitude in need of reading, deciding and responding (such as booking, planning, ordering, sorting, following up, reading more later etc), which in my case most likely simply piles up and results in nothing. The many becomes too many to handle directly, since I often open my email app to either check something specific or send one myself, unrelated to what in my inbox. What’s in my inbox, has to be taken care of afterwards, or at another time, creating frustration, interruption, and distraction, ie more stress. So, I put mine in designated folders to be taken care of later, would I find the time, access to more wifi, and place. What’s important to remember is to take charge of our time and keep our focus, or else we will do nothing but respond to others. Rather, we must create!

Do you have a good system for your emails, and do you subscribe to more than you read?