Email management

[GoinSouth]

New boss has over 10,000 emails in her inbox. All read but just sitting there. Any tips for organising these? I have my own method but I'd be interested in other hints/suggestions.

Many thanks.

@TokenGinger the sensible thing is to have a defined retention period for emails, it should be justifiable, meet any regulatory/legal requirements but should be as short a time as possible because data should only be retained for as long as it's needed and no longer.

So if you have a records retention and protection policy which says that emails will be retained for 30 days, then the company is covered, the requirement is clear, it can be consistently communicated and if someone asks for an FOI then the answer 'As per our Retention Policy all emails over 30 days are deleted so we are unable to fulfil your request' is completely acceptable. DPO should be very happy about that and leading the charge to implement it. It should be one of the DPOs core objectives to limit the data being stored and processed by the organisation to limit risk of that data being breached.

oh lord this would kill me. I am ocd with emails. anything that comes to me is either deleted filed away or saved to be actioned. which is normally within a few days and then filed away. in this case I would say at least two thirds are not required so would go in and delet anything that is a year old or more unless your job requires to keep them. then go through file or delete the rest. I will never forget a fairly high up manager I worked with would always come in after his holidays either a few days off or a couple of weeks, as soon as he came in he would delete half the emails he got. he always said if it was important people would tell him and you know what he was right. if I know i am going to be off always have my emails cleared or down to bare minimum before I go

@TokenGinger @GiltEdges FYI there are two key documents which CS uses. The first is HR records which relate to pensions e.g. sick absence records, pay records, change of working pattern, unpaid days etc. which may need to be kept until 100th birthday.

The second is your departments retention and disposal list. This sets out which documents must be kept and for how long, some may need to be sent to National Archives due to their importance. For example it is highly likely the Windrush papers should have been sent to National Archives.

Everything is in my inbox or it just becomes too complicated. For things I haven’t dealt with and still need to look into it goes in a folder called ‘working’ that is reviewed daily and then moved back to my inbox. I just don’t like having unread as it makes me anxious . I do have some folders for important info to keep, my personal stuff like pension etc. My colleague files hers immediately and can’t find anything. I was sitting with her once and she immediately moved stuff without even reading and now I see why she regularly doesn’t know important info. I always scan, even the IT updates, as often they ask you to do certain things on a Friday so you don’t have trouble after a weekend update etc.

I keep a "zero inbox" google it.
Anything I need to pick up in the week ahead I put into an outstanding folder, then I have some main subjects but with broad titles so I know roughly where topics are. I have loads of auto rules switched on that my team DLs are on, but that I dont need to read for that specific topic (key words in titles, from certain people etc). Anything I am signed up for that is rubbish I have rules turned on to go to trash...

zero inbox is amazing. highly recommend.

Thanks for this thread. I need to have a clear out! I'm one of those bosses with 1000's of emails,