Image by DNSF David Newman via Flickr

Now I hate to come off as a complete fanboy but two people I really admire on the web are Gina Trapani and Leo Babuta.  Gina is the lead editor of Lifehacker and one of the most productive people on the web – Leo is editor of Zen Habits.  He’s changed his life by simplifying it and tells other’s through his daily advice on how to do the same.

That said, ZenHabits published an interview with Gina on the publication of the second edition of her Lifehacker book, Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better. 

Amid the expected chit-chat and backslapping of interviews, ZenHabits asks Ms Trapani for her three top tips from the book. 

They were:

When I’m fully committed to using them, my three-folder system for managing email, my online calendar “tickler file” for reminders about stuff I need to do later, and my “doable to-do list” all save me from inevitable productivity meltdown on a daily basis.

The interview is worth reading in its entirety, but let me give you a hint on my favorite, the three-folder system for managing email.

In you email email reader, create three folders for messages – Archive, FollowUp and Hold.  Then tear through your inbox – if a message can be resolved in less than 2 minutes, take care of it now, otherwise put it in FollowUp because it needs to become a To Do.  If you’ll need the message for long term reference throw it in Archive.  If you’re going to need it in a couple days put it in Hold – else hit the delete key.

Note, this method works particularly well with Gmail since the normal action in Gmail is to Archive messages from your inbox, the other two folders can be created using labels.

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