Great video and tips Jaclyn … I am proud to say my email inbox is under control. Your suggestion about using folders is certainly one of the primary reasons. Another thing is I have multiple email accounts – one for Google Alerts (article research); my personal email account and the business email account. The other thing I did to substantially reduce email is I no longer subscribe to lists … I follow dozens of blogs and news sites, but I no longer subscribe. (I have a feeling I'm not the only one doing this!) Thanks for the inspiration.

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 11:19 PM

Yes! Folders help us to keep our flurry under control! So, have you thought about syncing your 3 emails in to one? I can show you how if you own a Google account. Maybe I’ll do that for my next blog post . Thanks for stopping by Marty!

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Hi Jaclyn,
Thanks for sharing this great informational video. I feel like a mini celebrity since you mentioned my name in your video with my "thank you" message from my blog
An out of control inbox can be a HUGE time waster and the technique you learned from Gavin is a big time saver. Gavin's course is great and certainly does help with all the productivity strategies.
You did a great job of sharing this strategy with your readers…it will help many.
My inbox is also under control, although NOT at zero.. I have used folders with my GMail account  for quite some time and like Marty, I have separate e-mail accounts that is very helpful and I don't subscribe to lists any more. Well, there are a few exceptions, but I have unsubscribed from most.
Keep these great videos and tips coming,
Marc
 

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 11:23 PM

Haha, you ARE a celebrity Marc!

Yep, time waster is another word that describes our emails. Flooded, work, time-sucker are other descriptions.
I am positive this video tutorial will help many with saving them loads of time. Shoots, let me know when you get it down to zero okay? Would love to know your reaction. I felt really weird when it was at zero, it was an unexpected feeling but now I look forward to getting down to zero everyday. It wipes away a lot of work load inside of my head, the clutter is left behind once it’s down at zero.

Thanks for your comments Marc!

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hi Jaclyn
Its very easy to feel overwhelmed when your email box is over flowing. Like other commentators above i only subscribe to a  few  lists. I Have filters in place to redirect mail to certain folders (which I look at at designated times) and have learned to look it the email at scheduled times. Its the best way to be productive. I remember the days when i kept checking my emails and got sidetracked from my work whenever a new email came through.

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 11:27 PM

Hi Anne,
My video was a super simple and very basic tutorial and wanted to keep it as short as possible (for the sake of our attention spans ) so didn’t mention about filters. But that’s something that I also use to control my inbox. Thanks for bringing that up. Also, checking your emails at certain times is another productivity strategy. Instead of wasting time leaving our email accounts open we need to visit it at a specific time of the day. That way we are in total CONTROL. My email used to be the boss, now I am the boss of IT!

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Jaclyn,
This is more important than most of us realize.  Raymond Aaron speaks about eliminating your messes. Having too many emails from different sources, all listed one after the other, feels like a big mess and confuses the brain.
I have also had the good fortune to watch Gavin Mountford's webinar.  At that time I had over 550 emails clogging up my GMail account, the earliest was from 2008!!  Although I had used folders to categorize the emails, I had not created certain necessary folders to separate out emails that could be placed into these categories:  Sites to Join (I get all these invites and no time right now for this, but maybe later), Courses and videos to watch (instead of having lessons 1,2,3 etc., interspersed with my other emails, they are all separated into one folder; when I have some spare time, I can choose which ones to watch)  I have added the @ sign to these and a few other important storage folders so that they appear at the top of my list of folders.
My Gmail emails are down to about 85, not zero, and I am still busy categorizing some latest ones, but I notice I still have one email from 2009.  Still have some work to do there. 
My AOL email is down to zero, although every day it is filled to brim again since I am involved with numerous professional organizations and listserves as well as several linkedin groups.  And every day I get invites to follow on twitter, facebook, linkedin and other sites.  But here I have only very recent emails, within the past 2-3 days.  Finally under control.
And my other emails are totally up to date and cleared out.
 
 

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 8:50 PM

Erica, I know you have so many important emails to keep track of. Hope one day (soon) you will be able to see your inbox down to zero. It’s such an exhilarating feeling!

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 11:33 PM

Confusion, there’s another word to describe a flooded inbox .

Wow, I’m not surprised you still had an email dating back from 2008. That sounds nuts though – Crazy!

Another great thing I noticed is you mentioned you go back to the folders when you make the time. Great, so you are not a victim of the inbox controlling you. YOU are the boss! When you get down to zero shoot me a quick comment about how it made you feel okay? Let’s inspire more people to get rid of that email overwhelm. Let’s COMMAND our inbox down to zero.

Good for you at finally getting under control. It really is an accomplishment to get your emails up to date and cleared out.

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Thanks so much for the great tip Jaclyn,
 
I don't have my inbox to zero, yet but this will definitely help
 
I have been using folders for a while, but didn't know anything about the "r/foldername" which is a really cool strategy!

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 8:49 PM

Yes – the R/foldername really makes a huge difference in the organization part. Neat right? I learned it from no other than Gavin Mountford! He taught me most of what I know about being productive today . Thanks for stopping by!

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Great post, Jaclyn! I know that there are times when my folders can be counterproductive in getting through things, but I definitely appreciate this information to help get to zero, as I start to sift through to make sure that I ultimately get to zero

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 21st, 2011 at 8:48 PM

Hey Steve – it’s always an awesome feeling to see my inbox at ZERO. Let me know how it goes, how you felt after seeing your inbox down to ’0′ okay?

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Jaclyn,

Thanks for the great video on clearing your emails. I need to do this myself.

Andy
Andy Nathan recently posted..A Few Wee Lessons I Have Learned From A Wee More Than 500 Blog Posts

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 24th, 2011 at 1:43 PM

When you make it a must, the urgency will move you to action. But you know that already .

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I have known about folders and used them before but i think I will add your little R/ trick… I have lots of emails… and Just spent a couple hours the other day sending them to files and deleting what I didn’t need!! This will help! Thanks!
Holly recently posted..Sam Stosur has a Perfect Match

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
October 8th, 2011 at 10:34 AM

I think it’s a cool tip too Holly! Glad you are implementing this to help control your inbox. Every little bit of organization helps us with staying productive and moving forward!

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Hi Jaclyn, How freeing! I love simplicity and your tutorial was just that. I do use files to store emails. It is on my list to get my email inbox under control and to complete Gavin’s training on online productivity. You have inspired me to make it a priority.
Bless you!
Lynn
Lynn Jones recently posted..When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 11:41 AM

That’s one of the things I love about what I do for this industry Lynn: Inspire others to take action! After you get it down to zero come back and inspire others by letting them know you did it to okay?

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Jacklyn, I’m guilty as charged. I think it’s because I subscribe to so many newsletters and resources. Your recommendation to create reference folders is great. Also, I do have filters set up, so that helps a bit, but there is still a massive amount of email in my inbox. I’m going to reference this article/video so I can come back to it: it’ll take more than 2 minutes, though I think the best way to go about it is to tackle it a little each day until I get to: Inbox Zero!!!
Steve-Personal Success Factors recently posted..How Business Owners Should Choose a Financial Planner That Will Protect Their Money & Their Future

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
October 2nd, 2011 at 9:47 AM

Hi Steve,
Yes if I were you I would spend 1-hour sorting out my inbox, and then take a 10-min break, come back to the task again for another 1-hour. Chunk your time to focus ONLY on getting your inbox down to zero and before you know it you will be “home free”!

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Hi Jaclyn,
I too use folders to keep my inbox down to zero. It would be a lot easier if gmail had filters that would automatically put emails into designated folders. I haven't had time to figure that out yet, so I do it all manually, as you showed us in your video. I've cut 'way down on the number of lists I'm subscribe to as well. Every little bit helps.
Willena Flewelling
Willena Flewelling recently posted..Standing on the Threshold

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
October 8th, 2011 at 9:18 AM

Yes, every little bit does help Willena. And using folders is one of those little things that help our inbox!

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Hello Jaclyn

Very valuable information.  Sometimes simpler is much better than a long complicated way..  One thing that I received from your post is the use of r/folders.  Using r/ folders is an excellent idea. Implementing them in my emails.

Thanks

Perry A Davis Jr
Music City

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
October 5th, 2011 at 4:58 PM

That’s just great Perry! Let me know how it goes okay? I expect that the time spent in your inbox will be less now that you’ve learned a thing or two in this tutorial .

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Hi Jacqlin,

I keep my email under control, but not down to zero during the week. However, one day per week, I knock it to zero to stay on top of it. Thank for sharing your video. I took Gavin’s course awhile ago, but I would love to go back and review.

One thing I think is humorous is I started out with an awesome gmail system but as I grew, I had to combine and condense, but it shows that you have to be flexible. I really didn’t think I would need to nest in the beginning, but I do! I think it is extremely important to stay organized, otherwise you will spend many hours of wasted time trying to locate passwords, billings, webinar announcements etc.

Your video is very practical and useful. Thanks Jaclyn!

Raena Lynn
Jaclyn Castro recently posted..Does Attraction Marketing Work?

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Jackie,

this is such a good tutorial. One thing that I love about it is that it is short and simple. People don’t want to sit through long tutorials if they don’t have to. People like myself don’t have the patience for long tutorials. Plus I like tutorials like this one that give a general overview and cover all the main points like creating new folders [labels] and the putting the r/ affiliates or r/ article marketing because that is a great way to organize emails according to topic!
Do you use any other email program other than Gmail?
Thanks again!
Jupiter Jim
Jupiter Jim recently posted..List of Blogs I Check Daily

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Jaclyn Castro Reply:
November 8th, 2011 at 3:04 PM

Thanks Jim! Sometimes I just don’t want to make the time to sit through a long tutorial myself .

I love Gmail, I get my business emails rerouted there (to gmail) because I really love the features it has. I love how I can select my business email address when sending emails from my gmail account. For example, when I am in gmail and want to send an email to a prospect, I select my biz email addy so that my prospect can see that my email address is more professional.

Thanks for stopping by!

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