Information Overload! How I Control My Email Inbox
Information overload? My email inbox was overflowing!
My email inbox has a work email address and a few personal email addresses feeding into it. Each email address has its own stream of inbound emails–sometimes hundreds per day. For many years, I struggled to stay on top of it all. Often things would fall through the cracks. These dropped balls would sometimes lead to trouble at home or trouble at work. I used my email inbox like a filing cabinet, rarely moving messages out of it.
A couple of years ago, I read two books that transformed my relationship with email. I’ve been tweaking my system and in January of this year, I fully implemented the program. The two books that influenced my changes are The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss (@tferriss) and Getting Things Done by David Allen (@gtdguy).
By combining recommendations from both of these best-selling authors with a few personalized tweaks, I’ve been able to keep my email inbox near zero–at least weekly. This has transformed my workflow and improved my productivity. And reduced information overload.
How I Manage My Email Inbox
I use the email filing and processing methods outlined by David Allen. I view my email inbox as a rest area on the highway of my work flow. Based on the recommendations in Getting Things Done, I set up a simple filing system which allows me (and at times forces me) to make a quick decision about each email. I use the following decision criteria:
1. Is this something that requires action from me? If so, I will tackle it immediately if it will take me 5 minutes or less to complete. GTD recommends two minutes, but I find the five-minute rule works for me.
2. If action is required, but it will take longer than 5 minutes for me to do it, I’ll put it into a folder called @action support. When I put the email into the support folder, I create a reminder on my @computer task list that states exactly what I need to do. Refer to the original email for specific details about the request.
3. If the action item or items in an email require input or action from someone else, I immediately refer it to them, file the original in my @waiting for support folder, and create a task reminder on my @ waiting for task list.
4. If no action is required, but I want to save the content, I file the email in my Evernote system. Evernote is like an electronic brain with a pretty good search function. Once the message goes into Evernote, I may give it a specific tag. If I don’t tag it, I can still find the message with a keyword search.
5. Finally, if the message won’t be acted upon or retained, I delete it.
If I ever have a question about deleting an email message from work, I delete it. I’ve found that if I need another copy of the message I can usually count on a colleague to send me a copy of the email. I’ve only had to make this request once during the past 8 months. I can live with that average.
This system may seem a little complicated. If you’re interested in more detail, I recommend you grab a copy of Getting Things Done. In 2015, David Allen released an updated version of his book. It’s been modernized, but does not contain specific recommendations about specific electronic or paper tools. By focusing on concepts and content rather than mechanics, the content is more timeless.
The key lesson I picked up from Tim Ferriss’ book The 4 Hour Work Week is the idea of batch processing email. In this book the author relates a story that drives home the point that email is really a way for someone to transfer their agenda items to you.
Think about it, if someone sends you an email that requires your action or input, it’s probable that the action helps the email sender accomplish something on their agenda. Each morning, I aim to complete something important from my daily agenda before I consider looking at my email inbox.
Click here if you’re interested in learning more about The 4 Hour Work Week
In my last role, many of the people I worked with treated email like texting. They expected a nearly instantaneous response to their emails. In order to change this expectation, I used another of Tim Ferris’ strategies: the auto-responder.
As a sales manager, I am on the road with sales representatives and customers most of each day. I set up an out of office response on outlook that I leave on 24/7. The message that’s sent tells the sender that I will be unavailable by email until 5:00pm and that I will respond after 5. I’ve used this message for over 18 months on my business and personal email accounts and no one has said a word about my responsiveness.
How to Activate an Out of Office Response
To turn on the out of office response in Gmail, open your settings, then scroll to “vacation responder.” Toggle the vacation responder on, add your text, and select who should see your message. I make this active for all messages. Here’s what my auto-responder looks like:
Finally, I’ve turned off the email alerts on my phone, tablet and laptop. I’m no longer distracted by pop up bubbles from MS outlook on my laptop, or those numbers on the email icon on my mobile devices. Because of the system I have, I don’t need to know when I receive a message throughout the day. I know it will be there after 5:00pm and those who sent me messages are aware that I will respond at that time.
So, where can we start?
First, let’s empty your email inbox. If you have an endless stream of messages in your email inbox, take one of two approaches:
1. Delete everything in your email inbox.
I know it’s heresy, but think about it this way. If a message is important to someone else’s agenda (ie the email sender), they’ll contact you with a reminder or another request. Also, you’ve allowed the buildup by not managing this space. While this may be a little uncomfortable, the psychic energy boost I get from this method makes it worth a little possible discomfort.
2. Quickly process each email message
Sort your messages into appropriate folders. Once the sorting is done, begin taking action.
Second, slow down the flow of messages to your email inbox by enabling an auto responder. I’ve found that checking email once per day works for me. I experimented with going a couple of days between checking email, but found I am most comfortable checking my email inbox once each day.
3. Set up your out of office responder.
When setting up your out of office responder, you may find that you need to promise that you will check your email inbox and respond to messages a couple of times each day. For example, you may say something like “I’ll be tied up in meetings all day. I plan to check my email messages at 10:00am, noon and 3:00pm. I’ll respond as quickly as I can. Thanks for your understanding.”
The key to this tactic is to keep your committment. I religiously check email after 5 each day. You build trust by telling people what you will do, then doing it. Over time, you can extend the time between email inbox check ins to better suit your needs.
If you’re really concerned about postponing your email until key points in your day, add your cell number to the message and instruct people to call you if they need a more immediate response. As you saw in my example, I do this and I receive very few calls from potential email authors.
4. Turn off email alerts on your phone, tablet and desktop.
When you turn off the alerts for email within your email program and on your mobile devices, you won’t be tempted to open the app when you see that little number on the icon in your phone. This will lead to fewer distractions throughout the day. Disable email alerts by opening the notifications window within your application’s settings menu.
Email can become a real burden if we let it. The tactics of filing, batch processing, and setting expectations with an auto-responder have transformed my relationship with my email inbox and have improved my responsiveness to my teammates.
How do you keep up with your email?
