STEP 1. FOLDERIZE

You're staring at a sea of emails. Most of them you have already read, and you haven't deleted them yet because there's some action you have to take. Or you might need the infomation later. Or you don't know if you need the information, but you might someday.

Here's the thing: you simply cannot look at all of those messages, read or unread, and process the information that you need to on a daily basis. It's the equivalent of a cluttered desk: All of the distractions are keeping you from FOCUS, which is what it takes to be EFFECTIVE.

Lucky for you, there is a cure: FOLDERIZING

Here's how it works: put your email into folders. Categorize either by subject or author, or whatever makes sense to you. What is most important is that you create a folder for each category, and create a rule for your incoming email that will put the mail into those folders.

That way you can read what you want to read, when you want to read it.