Get ON Your Email. Five Tips on Handling Email Better.

Let's face it, email is a blessing and a beast. Freelancers couldn't live without sending their thoughts and documents through the Ethernet. On the other hand, email can be an entrepreneur's biggest time drain. Although there is nothing that can be done to completely eliminate the time spent on email, the tips below can help reduce wasted minutes in your inbox.

1.    Never check email in the morning. Checking email as soon as you sit at your desk kills a work day. Never do that. Checking email as your first task lets your email decided what you will do. Only you should make that decision. Work on something important for your first ninety minutes. Then check email.

2.    Never check email on Wednesdays. Seriously, there's nothing magical about Wednesday, but if you chose one day a week to ignore your inbox, you'll be amazed at how much more work you'll get done. Afraid you'll miss something? Include your phone number in your signature. If it's really important, someone will call.

3.    Put it in the subject line. This is an amazing time-saving trick I learned a couple of years ago. Type simple replies to emails, or even initial emails, in the subject line. Why waste time typing "Today's Meeting" in the subject line, followed by "Can you make today's meeting?" in the body of the email, when you can type the body message in the subject line. It saves everybody time.

4.    Make a rule. Nearly every email program includes a method of making rules to deal with emails. Take the time to learn your program, and implement the appropriate filing rules for your incoming correspondence. I write a video game column for The Armchair. I slot every video game email from a public relations agent into a folder that I only review once a month. Probably saves me 6-7 hours of filing over the month.

5.   Change it up. Most of us organize our emails by order received, don't be afraid to reorganize by subject line or sender. This will frequently let you delete blocks of emails in one, fell swoop.

Email is a necessity, but how you deal with it can be the difference in productivity or hours spent in an inbox morass. I hope these tips keep you out of that morass and on the way to productivity.