It’s a new year, and my big prediction for 2012 is the backlash against email will continue. Perhaps the problem is not email per se, but how we deal with them.
Here’s some recommendations on how to control your inbox.
David Allen (father of the GTD method) regards email as another input, like voicemail or a desktop in-tray. A systematic approach to it’s management can be the key to staying sane. One GTD inspired method is that of Merlin Mann’s ‘Inbox Zero’. (I’d really recommend you watch the presentation if you have time).
Mann says that you must have a system to deal with e-mail and proactively build walls to maximize the finite time and attention you have available. Don’t spend your working day in your in-box! E-mail is just a medium. To use it effectively, e-mail has more to do about processing things to action and less about checking or responding. Shifting your mindset to regard email as an action to be completed is central to achieving better productivity. Each email should be read, it’s priority determined and appropriate action taken. Here’s your choices;
Delete: just get rid of it (or archive it).
Delegate: get someone else to deal with it. If you haven’t got someone to delegate to, get a virtual assistant!
Respond: if it takes just a few minutes, do it right now. Keep responses short.
Defer: put it on a todo list, archive it, and deal with it later.
Do: handle whatever the email actually needs you to do.
Learn to work in a way that allows you to create habits that enforce this process.
Don’t rely on folders as that require you think where you saved an email. If the email does not require any further action, archive email and rely on the search to retrieve it.
Don’t constantly check your email, schedule e-mail sprints so you can focus and process e-mails at specific times of the day .
Don’t keep email open all the time, check it at certain designated times throughout the day, and limit the time you spend on each check-in.
Don’t completely rely on artificial systems. Don’t create complex systems of workflow. Remember the words of Aristole, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Strive for excellence, and tame your inbox.
argued each social online tool was an example of the complex fusion of ‘a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain with the users’. The economics of these networks have changed fundamentally how we live, work and socialise.
I’ve just finished reading ‘Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever’ by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. I’d really recommend this book to anyone who is either thinking of starting their own business, or running their own business. The authors are the guys behind 37signals. 37signals have developed a range of simple web-based collaboration tools. Their software is used by over 5 million people. So the authors know a thing or two about turning great ideas into a great business.