The Email Giant

Anyone who works in an environment that uses email knows how easily this tool can become a slave master. I realized recently that my inbox had become my "to-do" list. As a result I was not using my time based on a set of priorities for the day, but letting email set the pace for my day. This was hurting my effectiveness and frankly it was no fun. This began my search for some productivity tips.

That is when I stumbled on this video from Merlin Mann who is a productivity guru in the online world. In the video he had some really helpful things to say regarding email. The video is called Zero Inbox and is at the very bottom. Be forewarned, it is about an hour. It is totally worth it though. It has changed how I handle email.

Here is what I have found most helpful from the stuff I have read:

• Batch process email - that is to say only handle email at certain times of the day. Some only read email 4 times a day. I have adopted the personal policy of only handling email once/hour when I'm in the office.
• NO email gets left in the inbox - it has to go somewhere. When I process email, they all go in one of 4 spots: Trash Can (becaue I've handled it and don't need it anymore), Archive (because I may need it later but I don't need it in my inbox), Read (to read later) or Act folder (I create a task out of the email and store the email here until I accomplish the task at a later time. It also gets added to my task, but is handled when I designate)
• Another way to think of it is that with every email you do one of 5 things: Delegate, Delete, Respond, Defer or Do.
• Remove all warnings that you just received email - I'm too tempted to look at my inbox when I get the notice.

The great thing about all this is that it has actually worked for me these last 2 weeks. I love looking at an empty inbox knowing everything is processed and handled appropriately. And more importantly I don't feel like my life is being run by Microsoft Outlook. Rather I'm running it.