Email: file it or label it?

Email overload. I struggle with both philosophies of email management.

First, my Outlook inbox for my work email account has over 2000 messages. I have replied to 99.99% of those messages; I just got lazy in my filing. (Outlook uses the old, familiar folder system for sorting and storing emails.) In other words, I do not succeed at "inbox zero." Therefore I should consider filing "email bankruptcy."

Second, my Gmail account has THOUSANDS of messages. One of the things I love about Gmail is forget about filing messages, just search for them. Using Gmail's Search and Labels seem to be a much better way for me to manage thousands of emails, especially emails from mailing lists. After learning some of the search tips, I can search for messages which are unread, read, labeled, etc. It makes for overall better management for me: less time filing, more time finding.

My colleague, Keith Seabourn, just pointed out two very good blogs on email management, written by the CEO of Thomas Nelson. Links below for your email managing pleasure:

Staying on top of all your emails:
http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/06/yes-you-can-stay-on-top-of-email.html

Filing "email bankruptcy:"
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/09/is-it-time-to-declare-email-bankruptcy.html

Happy reading!