More help with your email

by Dan Perlman on March 6, 2009

in Productivity, email

A growing black hole, called a quasar, can be ...
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“Doing” email — reading, answering and filing has become the one of the main occupations of the knowledge worker, it has also become a deep black hole sucking down your time and concentration.

There’s some advice on the NYTimes site for how to master your inbox.  Here’s the net-net.

Don’t dip into your in-box more than 3 times an hour. (Contrast this to previous post on Single Tasking that said only check your mail 3 times a day).

Clear out your inbox -

Set aside an hour or two to respond to every important message that has dogged you in the last couple months (anything older than that is too ancient to bother with). Next, move everything else into a new folder called Archive — this will be your storehouse of old mail. (Note: if you’re using Gmail and why wouldn’t you be?  Archive is the built-in concept for dealing with mail you’re finished with).

Now that your inbox is clean and in a state of grace, keep it clean by dealing with email this way:

  • Archive it
  • Respond to it
  • Forward it
  • Hold it for later — be careful of this one
  • Delete it (The Times left this one out, but it’s the most important).

Spend a couple of hours this weekend — clear your inbox, you’ll feel so good.

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  • Bill Kirwin
    Wrong! Don't do it over the weekend! Spend that time getting refreshed in a non-technological state. I am going to go on a seal watch.
    Come Monday start by sending less email. The email glut is a symptom not the problem. Any attempts to fix the symptom will be futile. Here are the ways out of this mess:
    1. Send less receive less - most emails never need to be sent.
    2. Send clearer emails - action, background. close
    3. Use peer pressure (coaching) to prod your co-workers to do less reply to alls, thank yous and other clutter creators.
    You will see your email volume get reduced by 20%, you will get 20% more time back (15 days on average) and email quality will improve by 35%.
    This technique has been proven by over 100000 folks that have been in our program. The great part is that it is sustainable - proven on 3, 6, 12 month follow up studies.

    And don't archive them - put them in meaningful folders - use F12 to save emails into My Documents where they can live with like kind - client info, output info, team info, administrative info.

    I read a book, The Hamster Revolution, that changed my life as a knowledge worker. All of these practical methods and more are explained in this short book.
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