This WS Journal CareerJournal article -- How You Handle Your Inbox Can Say a Lot About You -- is well worth reading. Thanks to Getting Things Done I've made the shift over the past two years from the generally cluttered inbox to the clean. Regular processing and the weekly review are the keys. The current count: 46 emails in my office inbox, all read, none older than Monday, and none needing an immediate reply (or they did, and I have replied but not finished processing the message into a task, calendar item, or folder for keeping). I have some travel time coming up, and I'll use the flight time to knock the rest off and get my inbox to empty.
The fact is, 500 emails in your inbox create in most people an enormous sense of guilt: guilt for not responding to people with whom you likely have some meaningful relationship, and guilt for not keeping up with your workflow. 500 untended-to emails are like 500 little broken promises, to others and to yourself.
Here are my simple principles for keeping up with my email flow:
Turn off your email program's "auto-fetch" feature. Most email clients download mail on some schedule -- from every minute to every hour. I've turned mine off on all my tools: laptop, desktop, and phone. Get email when you're ready to deal with it. This dramatically reduces your interruptions through the day and dramatically increases your ability to focus on the work or person in front of you. After all, you have a mailbox outside your house that anyone can use at any time, but you don't check it 12 times a day, do you? (Note: I often have people say "But what if something's urgent?" You have a telephone. If it's urgent they'll call. "What if it's my boss and he expects me to be checking email constantly?" Turn off auto-fetch for a week and you'll slowly change your boss' expectations of your availability.)
Turn off your email notification sound. In the event that your email client must have some schedule for download (you can't turn off auto-fetch), turn off the notifications -- the bells, pop-ups, and other things that say "you've got mail." Again, you don't need the distraction.
Separate processing time from work time. Whatever you do, don't flip back and forth between dealing with email and doing work. Set aside time several times a day to download and process messages. Then go back to work. I usually process messages three or four times a day: once in the morning, once at night, and maybe twice during the day. (Again, doing this will also recalibrate the expectations those sending you messages have about your availability.)
When processing, complete any email task that you can complete in two minutes or less. This is the only exception to the "separate processing time from work time" principle. Emails aren't really messages, they're work in message form -- commitments to honor, conversations to have, things to read. items to print. When I read an email the first thing I ask is "Can I deal with this in two minutes or less and be done with it?" If the answer is "yes," I do that thing right away and delete the message. This might be writing a short reply, printing the message, filing an attachment, or putting something on my calendar. But I do it, right then, and then dispose of the message in a folder or the trash. This "two minute rule," which I credit to David Allen, is very powerful, especially when applied to your life as a whole. Walk around today and every time you see something that isn't how it should be, ask yourself if you can make it right in two minutes or less. If so, do it -- and see the results you have by day's end.
When processing, arrive at one of four ultimate dispositions for every message -- turn it into a task, place it on the calendar, file it, or delete it -- and then get it out of the inbox. As I noted above, I don't think of emails as messages, I think of them as bits of work that I have yet to convert into their proper form. A message saying, "We're on for our call tomorrow at 11" isn't fully formed as work until I've placed that appointment on my calendar. I do that, and then delete the message. An email that says "Please read this" is a task yet to be completed. I print the item, place it in my briefcase, and delete or file the message. An email with contract details which I need to keep is actually a filing task. I drag it into the folder for that project. The point is that the art of having a clean inbox isn't about "dealing" with or "responding" to messages as much as it's about "converting" them. When I see email I say "What do I need to make of this? Is it a task, appointment, something I need to keep, or something I can delete?" I then help that message along it's way to its final destiny and get rid of the message accordingly.
Use handheld tools to process messages on-the-fly, but NOT to reply. It may be possible to type emails with a BlackBerry or phone, but it's also darn slow and inefficient. I never write messages of any length with my phone. I limit my replies to a few words and that's it. I do, however, use my phone to ensure I have no emergencies and to get some processing time in when I'm on the go. It's very easy in the back of a cab or at an airport gate to download mail (remember, I don't use auto-fetch), make some quick dispositions of messages, delete spam, and send a few "yes / no" replies. I then won't have to deal with those messages when I connect on my laptop, and those that do require a long reply I can then deal with using a real keyboard, saving me significant time in the process.
Some of this I've picked up along the way, some I owe to David Allen. Take what you will, but this is what works for me. I can say this: My life is a heck of a lot more relaxing coming home at night and knowing there are NOT 179 possible commitments, tasks, or appointments sitting out there, needing my attention. I may appear anal retentive, but I sleep great.
Go forth and convert!
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