Dealing with email was once very easy. I could easily breeze through the inbox clearing task in my daily review and rarely would I have more than 15 emails that required any serious action. That was a few months and one job ago.
Now I’m working with teams in both the United States and Europe so my day begins and ends with email and keeping up at times as been challenging. Between direct emails and mailing lists, I'm time is near constantly being divided between what I'm doing and what I need to do. A few weeks into a major project, I found myself brushing up on my email management skills and scouring productivity forums for tips. Here are the things that helped me get my email under control:
Always clear the inbox
I know people who never clear their inbox and literally have tens of thousands of emails staring back at them every day. Some rely on marking inbox items as follow-ups works well and perhaps it does, but personally I prefer the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve dealt in some way with everything that’s come my way.
Divide and conquer with email folders
One of the first things I do every morning is to move my emails into folders. I realize this isn’t a new idea, but may very well be an underappreciated one and a technique that I now truly rely on.
My folders currently are:
- Actions. Items that require a next action from me.
- Waiting. Things I’ve replied to which I can’t act on till I get a response or further information.
- Follow. These don’t require any direct action from me, but I feel its best I try to keep in touch with the topic.
- Hold. Emails that don’t require action but are handy to keep around.
- Processed. These are emails I’ve dealt with and aren’t actionable or have been turned into tasks.
I’d like to add that the Hold folder is particularly potent. Having a place to store emails that include files or other reference information has saved me hours of time searching.
Answer the easy ones, make tasks of the rest
Anyone who has practiced the GTD system is familiar with the two minute probably already applies it to email, but its worth mentioning here in reference: if you can answer an email in two minutes or less, go ahead and answer it. As for the remaining, I do a pass every morning to address how and when I will attend to each.
Make actions of your Actions
Though I no longer do the same for emails in my Follow and Waiting folders, I turn all the emails in Actions into tasks. I’m currently working for an Apple house so I’ve recently begun using a combination of Mac only options; namely Things for Mac and Mail. Things provides an extremely handy keyboard shortcut with which I can create tasks directly from Mail. Because I can automatically attach a link back to the original email, I purposely move the email to Processed once the task has been created. Note that I don’t have a folder called Completed. This title I find misleading and “processed” seems much more accurate.
Hide the email program
The urge to check my inbox can be so distracting at times as to prevent anything from getting done. I've found that hiding my email notifications actually made me more productive, most likely because I wasn't abandoning something mid-task. Because others often depend on quick replies to get their own tasks completed, I can't afford to wait all day to answer, but waiting a little while so I can focus on proven best for everybody.
So that’s about it. I don’t use Follow-Up labels and I don’t sort my inbox into priority. Though most of my tasks do come to me through my inbox, many don’t and I don’t see the logic in having two tasks lists: one based on emails and one for the rest. Perhaps soon I’ll talk a bit about how I take things the rest of the way!