An Empty Inbox is a Sign of Insanity

In this world we all struggle, I assume, with the obnoxious amount of information that is thrown at us every day.  In my personal life, I can manage this influx without any issue. I make the call. I do things on my time. At work, it’s a bit different. 

Like many of us working slobs, we get bombarded with emails.  I have struggled for YEARS with figuring out a way to keep my Inbox empty. I’m that person who can’t stand to have stuff in her inbox.  An inbox to me is not a holding facility for emails. It’s not a place to leave things that need to be completed. It’s an Inbox. In, review, and then out. In theory anyhow. 

I’ve read many a books on how to manage the elusive inbox.  Many of the techniques would stick with me for a bit, and then WHAM I’d go right back to using my inbox as a storage facility. 

Recently I’ve had a lot of emails come in that have required action to them and I was getting a bit behind the 8 ball in getting things done in a timely manner.  It was one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations. I needed to find something that would work for me. 

MS Outlook has an ability to set up Categories – they basically allow you to “tag” an email with a specific category.  I set up categories for all my major tasks – they’re color coded and we all know how I love me my colors. After I’d read an email I’d set the category. Then I could sort by category and work through all the tasks for that one project. 

This worked well for a while. What inevitably ended up happening is  I’d still have a bunch of emails in my inbox “waiting” for to be touched.

One book I read several years ago was called, “Take Back Your Life” by Sally McGhee and John Wittry. It’s full of great tips on how to best manage your inbox.  Their theory is you should only touch an email once.  When it comes in you should decide what needs to be done with it. Do it? Delegate it? Or Delete it? It’s a hard habit to form especially considering the amount of email that comes in. And for me, I tend to forget what the status is, or what was done with it. 

So I took they’re process and tweaked it to fit my needs. Organization is something that can be learned, and is something very personal. What’s organized to me may be a complete mess to someone else.  

Anyhow, now I use the Task option in Outlook. I love me my lists, and this allows me to keep a constant list.  It allows me to still categories my tasks, and set follow up reminders for when something needs to be completed.

My new process is easy, and I’ve been following it for a week now. 

 

A new email comes in. I read it and decide what action I need to take.

 

Is it an information only email? Yes, then it goes into my folder to read later.

 

Is it an email that requires and action? If yes, then I ask can it be done now? If not, it goes into the task list. 

 

I spend 30 minutes in the morning sorting through my email (generally – depending on how much comes this time varies).  Once the email has been sorted, I spend 30 minutes reviewing my task list and thinking about how to prioritize my day. Then I get to work.  I keep Outlook on the task page so I don’t get distracted by incoming emails.  I only go back to my inbox around noon and then again towards the end of the day.

 

Granted, I do have to go to the inbox to send emails out that are directly related to tasks I’m doing, but it’s only to send – no reading or working the inbox then. 

 

What I’ve found is:

1.     I’m not as distracted by the incoming emails. I tend to be a bit ADD about that. I’m sure that the new emails is of vital importance and I need to read it now. Not usually the case, and those emails usually are flagged with a bright red exclamation point. Which rarely shows up in my inbox.

2.     I’m way more focused on the work to be done. I have more time to actually get to my work. And I’m more thoughtful about how I approach it which makes me more efficient.

3.     I have lists. And I get to cross things off my list. THAT I love. It’s hard for me to move away from the paper list, but I’m finding this way my list comes with me wherever I go. In a meeting if a new action item is assigned to me, I can quickly add it to my task list. I can’t even tell you how many action items got lost in the pages of my notebook. Not anymore!

4.     Having a clean inbox has somehow lifted a burden off me. I feel more free and more in control of my time during the day.

I’m happy to elaborate to anyone who’s interested in more about my process (do I haven’t documented yet – but I may – don’t tempt me). It’s really very simple, but it does require discipline. That’s the hardest part I think.