Email overload.  If you're like us, it's probably one of the biggest causes of stress in your professional life.

Here's how to tame the monster in your inbox.

Step 1: Install Google Desktop

Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  If you do not have Google Desktop installed, go install it now.  Then come right back here.  (Unless you're a Mac OS X user; you've already got similar features built in to Apple's email client.)

http://desktop.google.com

Why?  Google Desktop provides instant full-text searching of all of your email messages.  It will save you hours of searching, and even more time spent filing.  As an added bonus, it also can instantly search the contents of all the documents on your entire hard drive.

Step 2: Kill all your email folders (except a few)

Now that you can instantly search your email, you can get rid of almost all of your email folders, and spare yourself the time and mental effort of filing most of your email.

You should probably keep a few folders, though, including:

• An "archive" folder where you can move emails you need to keep for reference.
• Folders to hold mail from email lists or other automated sources -- you don't want these kinds of low-priority messages hitting your inbox.

Step 3: Create a filter/rule for every list

Messages from email lists -- and any other kind of email subscription -- should never hit your inbox.  You've already created folders for each list you're on.  Now, create a rule to automatically move messages for the list into its folder.

Now, you can read email lists at your convenience.  We suggest once a day at most.

Step 4: Check email less often

If you're like most people, you check your email every 5-15 minutes.  That means you're getting interrupted up to 12 times per hour!   Set your email client to check for email no more than once an hour, and ideally even less often than that.   Then process your incoming email in "sprints" -- that is, as a discrete, focused task, rather than as an ongoing interruption.

Step 5: Process ruthlessly

Ruthless, efficient processing of your email is the key to avoiding overload.  Here are some tips we use:

• If it will take less than two minutes to respond or to delegate it to someone else, do it immediately.
  
• If the message requires you to take a follow-up action, put it on your task list.
• If you need to save the message for reference (not for a follow-up action), move it to your archive folder.
  
• Otherwise, delete it now. 
  

(These tips are shamelessly cribbed from David Allen's Getting Things Done, which we heartily recommend.)

Got a favorite tip to share?  Leave a comment below.