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Sorting the Mail by Reginald Marsch
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Maintaining 3 regular habits makes the infrastructure I talked about previously work to help me stay ahead of my email. #1 - Processing my Inbox
I empty my email inbox on a regular basis. This doesn't mean I completely deal with every email message, it means I look at each message, decide what action is required for it, and put it where it belongs so that action can occur. If what it needs done to it can be completed in less than 1 minute I usually go ahead and do it. I think of this as "processing" my inbox and I try to do it 2-3 times each day I am at work.
The key to making this habit work is that it is a quick process (typically 15 minutes each morning; 5 minutes after lunch; and another 5-10 minutes just before I wrap up my workday). When I began doing this I would set a timer to keep me focused and avoid the trap of looking up from my inbox and realizing hours had gone by. Now I can usually stay on track without this task without the timer, but I still use it whenever I feel like I might get sucked into a vortex of email.
The infrastructure of categories and folders gives me the places to put messages so the action I decide they need can occur later. Here are some examples of various emails I might have in my inbox to give you an idea of the decision making process:
- An invitation to a meeting - if I want/need to attend I check my calendar, write the meeting there if I am free (yes, I use a paper calendar), accept or decline the meeting invite, and if the meeting link, agenda, or other useful info is included in the invite, I assign the message to the "waiting for" category so I can find it when it is time for the meeting.
- An update from one of my staff about their schedule - reply to the message ("thanks for letting me know") and file it in the folder for that person (or delete it if it isn't something I might forget and need to check later).
- A request that I do something that will take more than a minute -- reply that I got the message and will take care of it and then assign the message to the "deal with" category.
- A cc related to one of my projects -- if I don't need to do anything about it I just file it in the folder for that project. If I do need to take some action it gets flagged "deal with"
- A message from a patron that I want one of my staff to follow up on -- I forward it to the staff person with a note telling them what I want them to do and delete the message (there is a copy automatically in my "sent" folder if I needed to go back to it for some reason).
My listserv email is in a separate category so I don't have to wade through it when I process my inbox. If I have time after my new messages are processed I review it too and process it the same way as other messages. It is rare that I need to take action on any list-serv messages, but if I do they can be handled just like any other email.
If I have been out of the office for a while (or if I have fallen off the wagon and got behind on email processing) I schedule an hour or two to process my inbox so I am back on track.
#2 - Deal with "Deal With"
At least once each work day I try to review everything in my "deal with" category and either finish what needs to be done or add the project or task the email represents to my to do list. Once the email is dealt with (or turned into a task or project) it is either deleted or filed in the folder it relates to. If the action will need to be followed up on later that follow-up task goes into my task list or calendar, I don't leave the email in the "deal with" category. I personally find this the most challenging of the 3 habits to stay on top of.
#3 - Review "Waiting for"
Once every week or two I review all the "waiting for" emails and either delete them (meeting links for meetings that are over for example); send a follow-up email to whomever I am waiting on to do something; or file them in the folder they related to. If "waiting for" is still the appropriate status for a particular email I leave it as it is.
Sometimes I am able to maintain these habits better than other times. However, they can all be "caught up" on if I get behind. They are also all habits that will reward any time I am able to put toward them because resolving even a single email is forward progress.