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Email is a huge problem for most of us, and there are tons of ideas for dealing with it. As I continue to work with clients, I've come to believe there are really only three things you can do to master email:
- Get Fewer,
- Get Faster, and
- Get Control
Let's break them down:
Get Fewer
First, manage your incoming volume. A few suggestions:
- Send less - not every message requires a response (yes, this means not sending thank-you-only).
- Ask others to send less, including reducing CC, Forward, and "Reply All" messages.
- Educate (kindly) frequent senders on best practices.
- Get off low-value distribution lists, and move email-based subscriptions to RSS (see Move email-based subscriptions to RSS).
- Use other forms of communication when relevant (see When To Use Email & When Not To).
Get Faster
Second, get more efficient at your processing. And I do mean processing, not "checking." I give clients a chainsaw analogy: Your program is a powerful, but somewhat dangerous tool, and - like a chainsaw - you shouldn't fire it up just to "check" the trees. You're doing work here, not testing
ones and zeros.
My main recommendation is to learn and apply a methodology like
Getting Things Done. I've found these types of approaches are the most effective way to rapidly process your inbox. You learn to be decisive, spend two minutes or less per message (that means
getting briefer), manage action and delegation, and get every message out of "IN" once you've dealt with it. It ain't easy, but it's crucial.
In addition take steps like learning your program's keystrokes and shortcuts (esp.
Delete and
Move to Folder), keeping your SPAM filter up-to-date, and setting up templates for common responses.
Get Control
Finally, you must break the habit of near-continuous checking. Most of us check email far more often than necessary, and this impacts our focus. A study by Microsoft (see
Slow Down, Brave Multitasker - paper
here) examined the habits of employees over two weeks, and found it took people more than nine minutes, on average, to return to primary tasks after being diverted. And they spent 10-15 minutes before returning!
Some tips to move from reactive to proactive:
- Turn off the new mail alarm. Otherwise, it’ll rip your attention away every time.
- Reduce the "get new mail" setting to ~once/hour.
- Block out specific time for processing. Depending on your job, you might be able to limit it to a few times a day (10 am, 1 pm, and 4 pm?)
- Consider not checking it first thing in the morning.
What do you think? Do these three cover it? And do you have any favorite tips that fit into this (or not)?
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