A Simpler E-mail File Structure?

Okay, so we just went through an overview about how to set up an effective, structured, organized file structure within your Outlook and/or your Gmail, and that file structure is one that I think can be highly usable. But I wanted to give you a little bonus video here in the program to give you a counterpoint as to how you might be able to structure that file system. And it might be a much simpler option for some, some of you, which means maybe you'll be more likely to actually use this. So as you remember, when I was doing the program, I was basically going in and showing you my file structure, which is a fairly sophisticated file structure. This is my Outlook file structure. I have a fairly similar structure inside my Gmail, not quite this sophisticated, but you'll see I have folders, and in some places I have folders inside of folders, and someplace I have folders inside of folders. Folders inside of folders. And some people when they see this they get a little intimidated because they think that's so many folders it's going to be hard to remember where I put stuff, that's so many folders it's going to take me time to put stuff away. I've been using this folder structure for quite some time and I found that I am actually quite efficient using this structure. I can put stuff away quickly, I can find stuff quickly, but I've been using it for years and I do think there may be some merit for some of you to consider what could be considered a simpler folder option. And I've been hearing some talk from some of the thought leaders in the field that maybe a simpler structure might be more usable because people will be more likely to utilize it. A simpler folder structure that maybe only has 3 to 4 folders that you have inside of it. And I agree that that might be that better option. Consider a structure like this. What if you just had 3 folders? Your first folder is a folder called Active, and that folder basically contains items that came into your email that you determined you still need to work on but you don't have time to work right now. Now, of course, if you're following the strategy we talked about, that item would either be in your calendar or your task list also. But now you have a place where you can go find it called the Active folder. A second folder called To Archive, and this is stuff where there— you don't have an action related to that email, but you want to keep it for later reference in case something else comes up related to that same topic person, client, etc. And then you have a third folder called To Delete, and what that folder very simply is, is a place where you put emails you think are very likely you're not going to need again. You keep them for a period of time, maybe a month, 2 months, 3 months, and then once they reach that age, you delete them. And in essence, what that means that your inbox would look like is something like this. Take a look here. Active, To Archive, To Delete, along with some of the other basic folders that you have—Drafts, Sent, Outbox, etc.—a much simpler folder structure that might be much easier for use but still allowing you to keep that inbox close to zero. And when you think about this, the key point here is I don't really care how you structure the folder structure, but what I do care is that you find a way to keep your distraction down. And so if you use this structure, in essence what you would do is when you need to go back and find an email either in the Active or the Archive or even the To Delete folder, you would be using the search option built inside of your Outlook or your Gmail to find what you need to find. But you're not doing that in the inbox, you're doing that in one of these three subfolders. And think about this, if you've gone ahead and set up the categories in Microsoft Outlook or the labels in Gmail as we've already discussed, it's going to work even better because now you have connections built in that will allow you to search and find these things in a more efficient manner. In essence, what I want you to do is still get that inbox down close to zero, reducing your distraction, getting rid of the clutter which is slowing you down, and keeping you from rereading the same messages over and over again that you're already done with. It still follows that out of sight, out of mind principle, but now you have a place where you can put your stuff, put it there quickly, Use the search capability, use the categories, use the labels to find what you need when you need to find it. Think about that because if you're more likely to use it, hey, that's fantastic. I just want you to be able to find your focus and know what you need to work on next using the calendar and task list.