You must check your emails less often. When you get new emails, you have to take action for each and every one.
There are five possible actions for each email:
- Delete / archive
- Delete crap
- Archive the rest in a single « Archive » folder (use full-text search to retrieve)
- Delegate
- Put a follow-up
- Respond (quick)
- Keep the ball in motion
- Ask a question if you don’t have enough information to respond
- Defer
- Put in a « To respond » folder
- Try to empty it every day
- Consider it a small response buffer
- Do
- Do it, now…
- …or schedule it (don’t use your inbox as a to-do list)
- When it’s done, archive
Of course, this is customizable. You can come up with another list. The key is to always know what to do with a new email.
Other advice:
- Essentially, you need to develop & keep this processing habit!« We are what we frequently do » Aristotle
- Get and read emails once an hour, process to zero and shut if off! (same for news feeds)
- Cheating is OK
- Filter high noise / low signal emails but don’t over filter
- Use templates for frequent answers
- « I don’t know » is a valid answer
- If you’re very late to answer an email, why not simply reply « do you still need this? »
- No fiddling
- Don’t browse your inbox without processing
- Stop doing meta work
- Check yourself periodically & adjust the process if necessary
- Am I putting my attention where it should be?
