Mike Petsalis wrote about how he achieved Inbox Zero in his 6-part Email Overload series, but I find that these few easy steps work best for me. Here’s my approach:
Processing Rules
1. Process messages in order: don’t jump around your Inbox.
2. Process them one at a time.
3. Never put anything back in your Inbox: your inbox is not for storing things. If you need to refer back to an email, your Inbox is not the place for it.
Two Questions to Ask When Processing Messages
1. What is this? Simply backing up and asking, “OK, what is this again?” can really turn the lights on!
2. What’s the next action?
How to Handle the Four Different Types of Emails
There are four types of emails that you need to know how to handle:
1. Emails requiring no action: such as spam – you can either delete them or report the spam.
2. Emails requiring actions that take less than two minutes: if you can do it in two minutes or less, do it right away.
3. Emails requiring actions that take longer than two minutes:
- If you need to write a detailed response but don’t have time to do it right away, put it into an “Answer” folder.
- If the email contains substantial reading material that will take some time, such as a project plan or a lengthy article, put it in the “Read” folder.
4. Emails containing information you need to keep: put it in a folder with a relevant name so that you can easily find it again later.
How Often Should You Check Email?
1. Do not check email continually.
2. Check your email once an hour throughout the day.
3. Each time that you check your email, process all of it.
4. Clear out the working folders once a day, preferably first thing in the morning.
5. Review your ‘next action’ and project list once a day and take action on the items.
