It’s no surprise when you open your inbox every morning to discover more unread mail than the US Postal Service on Christmas Eve. It’s simply a fact of life that every CEO must face if your job sits you at the head of the proverbial table.

As part of the .CEO Network's endeavour to make the lives of CEOs a more seamless and stress free environment, I’ve compiled a list of the five best articles on how to manage your inbox with a short snippet of each.




1. 7 Ways to Manage Email So It Doesn't Manage You by Jeff Wiener (LinkedIn CEO)

"I decided to conduct an experiment where I wouldn't write an email unless absolutely necessary. End result: Materially fewer emails and a far more navigable inbox. I've tried to stick to the same rule ever since."

2. 4 Tips to Better Manage Your Email Inbox by Jacqueline Whitmore (CEO & Author)

"Prioritize, group, sort and file messages to keep your inbox organized. The better your filing system, the easier it will be to locate specific emails when you need them."

3. 9 Rules For Emailing From Google Exec Eric Schmidt by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

"Any time you spend thinking about which items in your inbox you should attack next is a waste of time. Same with any time you spend rereading a message that you have already read (and failed to act upon)."

4. Five Simple Yet Effective Tips for Managing Your Email by Thanh Pham

"Try to keep it brief by using no more than six sentences. This will force you to get to the point. If you need more sentences – consider calling the person or having a face-to-face meeting to communicate your thoughts."

5. Time-Saving Tips for Managing Your Email Inbox by Rob Kelly

"Krieger suggests shutting down your email for 50 minutes per hour to focus on what you need to focus on and opening it for 10 minutes to work on what has come in. “That allows me to maintain focus and also respond to anything that might have happened in the past 50 minutes,” he says."