I’m happy to try a tool or technique to help filter out “noise”, reduce overload, and allow me to focus on the important stuff at work. Around 5 years ago I came across “Inbox Zero” which fits the above criteria. In this blog post, I’ll describe how I’ve tailored it to suit me.
First up, I admit I’ve never hit zero e-mails in my inbox. I’m regularly down to a manageable number though; perhaps I should call my process “Inbox 20” as getting to 20 or fewer e-mails in my inbox makes me happy.
“Inbox 20” is all about making decisions at the time of skimming or reading new e-mails. After years of making these decisions daily, I find it adds very little overhead - to the point where I could not imagine going back to having no system.
I adapted my decisions below from advice I saw on the internet - I’ve included a couple of references at the end of this blog post.
Decision 1: does the e-mail require an immediate response from me?
- if so, respond now
- prefer “Reply all” over “Reply” for openness & transparency
- if my response runs longer than 5 sentences, a phone conversation may be preferable (I can always still follow up with an e-mail summarising the phone call if necessary)
- important: once I’ve responded, I move the e-mail out of the inbox - file in a folder or perhaps delete the e-mail
Decision 2: does the e-mail require any response from me?
- am I a “To” recipient?
- is the e-mail conversation something I can contribute to - and is it valuable that all recipients hear it from me?
- is it important info that I need to acknowledge I’ve read, or direct the sender to the correct recipient?
- pro tip gleaned over the years: a response of “Noted, thanks” can be enough, especially if the e-mail is from my bosses or other higher level
- if the response will take less than a couple of minutes - do it now
- my 5 sentence guideline still applies
- once dealt with, file or delete the e-mail
- if I’m in doubt about my response, or I need thinking time, or the e-mail is not urgent: I’ll come back to later - leave in inbox for now
Decision 3: what do I do with e-mail not dealt with by the first 2 decisions?
- 3 options: keep (file in a folder) with no response, keep (do nothing for now, leave in inbox) for later, or delete
- a little more subjective than the first 2 decisions
- is it from my bosses - keep
- is it related to me or my team’s work - keep
- might I refer to the e-mail later - keep
- did I already respond - file (done at decision 1 or 2)
- is this a second or third review of e-mails I’ve previously kept - may be able to file or delete as the topic is finished or no longer relevant
- if in doubt, leave in inbox…for now
Some categories of e-mail never require a response - for these e-mails, I suggest using inbox rules to file/delete without reading to reduce “noise”.
Note I only check my inbox from time to time during the day as I strongly believe e-mail should not torpedo my productivity (I get around 60 e-mails a day but thanks to inbox rules only read about 20).
The final thing I want to mention is that my “Inbox 20” took effort to set up. Going back 5 years, my inbox had 100’s of e-mails, despite my habit of filing in folders. Why? Mainly because I used e-mails as defacto TODO list which is horrible as new stuff keeps bumping older e-mails. I started by mass deleting e-mails (grouping by the sender helped). Next, I skimmed each e-mail and made decisions; if an e-mail was time-sensitive and overdue, I responded to say I was looking at it.
Hopefully, this blog post is of some help if you’re facing e-mail overload. Good luck!