Those of you, like me, who’s also having a hard time managing their email inbox, you might also be interested to watch this video. Merlin Mann, a well known productivity guru and creator of the popular 43 folders website talks about Getting Things Done, the importance of getting your inbox to zero, and strategies for dealing with high volume email.
Jeremy Zawodny summarizes the presentation into this list:
- Delete: just get rid of it (or archive it)
- Delegate: get someone else to deal with it
- Respond: if it takes just a few minutes, do it right now
- Defer: put it on a todo list, archive it, and deal with it later
- Do: handle whatever the email actually needs you to do
My usual approach for some time now is to “defer”. However, this often puts me in a pickle since the ones I defer always end up being completely forgotten and unanswered for months until I get reminded of it by something else. Manolo even scolded me before telling me to get an assistant to answer my SMS and emails (now that’s pushing it really far :D ).
Catching up on my email is something I do when I can’t think of anything to blog.
To add to the tips above:
1. Use the “rules” function in Outlook to automatically sort mail or to delete spam
2. Make a “later” folder. You’ll know where to find your pending stuff later.
3. Make it a habit to “attack” your inbox at least 3x a day. I do it mornings, before lunch aand then once in the afternoon.
4. Reading mail is NOT work. Turn off Outlook and concentrate on actual work, like spreadsheets, plans, forms and meetings.
Hope this helps on the productivity.
Cheers
GM Tristan
gmtristan.com