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So, I recently listened to the "Preparing for your review" podcasts. In them, Manager Tools suggests reviewing all your e-mail for the year.
I started to do this, then realized that I sent or received over 22,000 mails in the last year, and reviewing them all would take at least half a day. Is that really what Manager Tools is recommending here?
I scan the subject lines of my sent box.
I scan the subject only - sent box first, then inbox - and I do it quarterly. I scroll through the sent box more slowly, but still fairly quickly - only to remind myself what I did - just enough time highlighting the subject line to remind me of major headers - I then usually remember what I did within that project.
I focus on the subject header as I scroll through the emails. I have about 40,000 emails per year. I think I spend about 20 minutes scanning the subject lines (but I do it quarterly). This means 8 emails per second. This is obviously a quick scan. The email conversation view might make it go quicker now though.
This helps with both review prep and career mgmt tool. It usually gives me a couple accomplishments - either for a minor project or an accomplishment on a major project that needs updating.