Achieving Sanity Through Prioritizing Our Email Inbox

Let's work "on" instead of "in" our email. Some time management professionals will tell you to ignore email as much as possible or only look at it once a day. Often this results, however, in missing an important or urgent issue that needs to be addressed.My preferred method harkens back to Stephen Covey. He shares the power of the Eisenhower Matrix (pictured below) in assuming control of one’s time. The matrix is a simple but powerful tool which, if correctly implemented, yields enormous benefit in helping us to prioritize.Using four quadrants (urgent and important, not urgent and important, urgent and not important, not urgent and not important), the matrix allows us to filter incoming tasks and requests and ideas into the areas they belong. We are encouraged, by Covey, to “live” in the second quadrant—not urgent and important—as this is where our goals and dreams and ambitions are accomplished.