Work Blog: In Search of Inbox Zero, Part 2: Resolution Tactics
Part 2 of 4. Original post was on April 22, 2021. I've stopped pretending it matters that you know we use Outlook for email at work, so the only changes in this reposting are in the system references in three of the four bullet points under the Delete, Store or Offload heading. You'll recognize them when you get to them.
Last time, we talked about blocking off time to deal with email. That's a great first step, but how do we use that time to get closer to Inbox Zero so we can free our valuable brainpower from the guilt, stress and embarrassment of unread emails? As promised, in this edition we have some useful tactics on how to use that focused email time most effectively to get closer to that elusive goal, or at least to read and resolve everything you got in the last day. Hang on to your hats, here we go!
Deal With Meeting Invites First
Any given email may or may not ask you to do something. By definition, a meeting invite is asking you to do something. Therefore, opening a meeting invite and accepting or declining it always provides some value, both to you by getting it out of your inbox and to the meeting organizer by letting him or her know if you're coming. Any other email at random is guaranteed to be less useful on average, so deal with the invites first. Sorting by "Type" in Outlook can even put them all in one place for quick consideration.
Of course, knowing which meetings to attend and which to skip is a whole other topic. Huh, that sounds like an idea for a future post...
Plan Your Follow Up
Some emails just need to be deleted. Some need a quick one sentence response. Others ask for more complicated work. If you decide to do that complicated work during your email focus time, you may finish that complicated work, but you will NEVER get caught up on your email. In the worst case scenario, the time you spent resolving that email now means you will be late finding the more urgent email further down the queue.
How do you stay on track during your email focus time? As a general rule, if you can resolve the email in less than two minutes, do it immediately. If you run into an email that requires dedicated time and attention to resolve, schedule that time on your calendar right now. So if you got a request for a code review, block off time to do that code review. Need to pull some data for someone? Block off time to do that. Attach the relevant email to your Outlook invite for ease of remembering, then move on to the next email. If appropriate, you can even respond to the email and tell them exactly when you are planning to handle their request, which adds a layer of accountability. Even better, this scheduling approach allows you to block off time to do related activities together and minimize context switching. For example, if you have to do five code reviews, you'll probably do better work by getting into the code review mindset and doing as many as you can in one chunk rather than fitting them in here and there wherever you have a free moment.
I have heard people say that they keep emails around so they remember to follow up. That's not a terrible idea, but if you need to follow up on an email on a specific day, an Outlook task or Outlook reminder will probably be more useful for reminding you than leaving the email in your inbox. Set one up and get the email out of your inbox.
Delete, Store or Offload
I had someone tell me once that they still had tens of thousands of emails in their inbox because "what if they needed to reference that email again?" My response was that with that many emails in their inbox, they were going to have trouble finding the one they cared about when they needed it anyway! When you add in that our corporate email retention policy deletes most of our emails after two years anyway, it's clear that leaving things in Outlook is rarely the best option.
Rather than leaving the email in your inbox, consider these options:
- Most official newsletters have archives that you can refer back to. For example, the EXAMPLE EMAIL NEWSLETTER archived on the OFFICIAL ARCHIVE LOCATION all the way back to 2015. If you need to reference anything in there, you can find it. Bookmark the archives you care about and ditch the emails.
- Saving notifications from automatic systems for reference is usually madness. If you subscribed to notifications, you can find it again. Most other systems that send notifications have something similar.
- If an email contains information that you think is important for your team, it may be worth moving it in your TEAM DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM. Those of you who are managers can even delegate this to someone else!
- If an email contains information that is important only to you, it may be worth putting in your PERSONAL SYSTEM #1 (you can attach the email) or in your PERSONAL SYSTEM #2 (properly locked down, as appropriate).
- For emails related to active projects that you may actually need to reference frequently, Outlook folders can work. I don't recommend putting every email in an Outlook folder though, just ones you think you're going to have to reference in the short to medium term. Otherwise you'll just end up with some folders that contain thousands of emails.
The trick here is to find an approach that works for you. At the end of the process, you should be confident that the only emails in your inbox are ones that you have not yet read and resolved.
Kill Email Before It Even Arrives
These tips will help you deal with email that is in your inbox, but wouldn't it be nice to reduce the amount of email you have coming in the first place? In our next edition, we'll talk about three ways to reduce the amount of email coming in.
Thank you for reading. Bloggers love feedback, so leave a comment and tap that Like button like the next post depends on it. Even better, click "Watch this Page" in the top right-hand corner and we'll send updates right to your inbox. At least you'll only have to take action on that email if you want to improve!
Last time, we talked about blocking off time to deal with email. That's a great first step, but how do we use that time to get closer to Inbox Zero so we can free our valuable brainpower from the guilt, stress and embarrassment of unread emails? As promised, in this edition we have some useful tactics on how to use that focused email time most effectively to get closer to that elusive goal, or at least to read and resolve everything you got in the last day. Hang on to your hats, here we go!
Deal With Meeting Invites First
Any given email may or may not ask you to do something. By definition, a meeting invite is asking you to do something. Therefore, opening a meeting invite and accepting or declining it always provides some value, both to you by getting it out of your inbox and to the meeting organizer by letting him or her know if you're coming. Any other email at random is guaranteed to be less useful on average, so deal with the invites first. Sorting by "Type" in Outlook can even put them all in one place for quick consideration.
Of course, knowing which meetings to attend and which to skip is a whole other topic. Huh, that sounds like an idea for a future post...
Plan Your Follow Up
Some emails just need to be deleted. Some need a quick one sentence response. Others ask for more complicated work. If you decide to do that complicated work during your email focus time, you may finish that complicated work, but you will NEVER get caught up on your email. In the worst case scenario, the time you spent resolving that email now means you will be late finding the more urgent email further down the queue.
How do you stay on track during your email focus time? As a general rule, if you can resolve the email in less than two minutes, do it immediately. If you run into an email that requires dedicated time and attention to resolve, schedule that time on your calendar right now. So if you got a request for a code review, block off time to do that code review. Need to pull some data for someone? Block off time to do that. Attach the relevant email to your Outlook invite for ease of remembering, then move on to the next email. If appropriate, you can even respond to the email and tell them exactly when you are planning to handle their request, which adds a layer of accountability. Even better, this scheduling approach allows you to block off time to do related activities together and minimize context switching. For example, if you have to do five code reviews, you'll probably do better work by getting into the code review mindset and doing as many as you can in one chunk rather than fitting them in here and there wherever you have a free moment.
I have heard people say that they keep emails around so they remember to follow up. That's not a terrible idea, but if you need to follow up on an email on a specific day, an Outlook task or Outlook reminder will probably be more useful for reminding you than leaving the email in your inbox. Set one up and get the email out of your inbox.
Delete, Store or Offload
I had someone tell me once that they still had tens of thousands of emails in their inbox because "what if they needed to reference that email again?" My response was that with that many emails in their inbox, they were going to have trouble finding the one they cared about when they needed it anyway! When you add in that our corporate email retention policy deletes most of our emails after two years anyway, it's clear that leaving things in Outlook is rarely the best option.
Rather than leaving the email in your inbox, consider these options:
- Most official newsletters have archives that you can refer back to. For example, the EXAMPLE EMAIL NEWSLETTER archived on the OFFICIAL ARCHIVE LOCATION all the way back to 2015. If you need to reference anything in there, you can find it. Bookmark the archives you care about and ditch the emails.
- Saving notifications from automatic systems for reference is usually madness. If you subscribed to notifications, you can find it again. Most other systems that send notifications have something similar.
- If an email contains information that you think is important for your team, it may be worth moving it in your TEAM DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM. Those of you who are managers can even delegate this to someone else!
- If an email contains information that is important only to you, it may be worth putting in your PERSONAL SYSTEM #1 (you can attach the email) or in your PERSONAL SYSTEM #2 (properly locked down, as appropriate).
- For emails related to active projects that you may actually need to reference frequently, Outlook folders can work. I don't recommend putting every email in an Outlook folder though, just ones you think you're going to have to reference in the short to medium term. Otherwise you'll just end up with some folders that contain thousands of emails.
The trick here is to find an approach that works for you. At the end of the process, you should be confident that the only emails in your inbox are ones that you have not yet read and resolved.
Kill Email Before It Even Arrives
These tips will help you deal with email that is in your inbox, but wouldn't it be nice to reduce the amount of email you have coming in the first place? In our next edition, we'll talk about three ways to reduce the amount of email coming in.
Thank you for reading. Bloggers love feedback, so leave a comment and tap that Like button like the next post depends on it. Even better, click "Watch this Page" in the top right-hand corner and we'll send updates right to your inbox. At least you'll only have to take action on that email if you want to improve!