Chapter One
Control Your Email
Do you wish you received less email? Sure you do. Do you want to live without the convenience of electronic mail? Of course you don''t. The greatest double-edged sword in productivity technology, email both empowers and overwhelms its users. But the most successful professionals know how to control their email instead of letting it run their workday.
On one hand, email enables anyone with an Internet-connected device to send information great distances at the press of a button. On the other, you''ve got 1,762 unread messages sitting in your inbox, and you don''t know when you''ll have time to get through them all. Ding! Another one just arrived.
Before email became ubiquitous, to send a letter, a person had to commit the information to paper, stuff and address the envelope, affix postage, and drop it in the mailbox. Days or weeks later, the message arrived on the recipient''s desk. Today, email offers the same type of text-based communication, just faster and easier, complete with a cute little envelope icon. But the same ways you deal with arriving postal mail don''t work on electronic mail. Incoming messages are incoming messages. But email''s effect on workers is vastly different from paper mail for one fundamental reason: volume. The speed, convenience, and low cost of sending email has increased the number of transmissions to levels that turn the postal service green with envy: about 150 billion emails are sent daily.
This virtually free and instantaneous message transmission is great for the sender but not for the recipient. The cost and inconvenience of sending postal mail acts as a filter: when that envelope appears in the recipient''s mailbox, she can trust that the message is important enough to the sender to warrant the investment.
Electronic mail, however, shifts that burden. With the volume of electronic mail sent each day, the onus is on the recipient - not the sender - to sort through the avalanche of messages she''s received. Email overload is such a common malady in the information age that experts estimate it costs companies billions of dollars a year in worker productivity losses.
Some companies and users resort to extreme tactics to combat email overload:
* In 2004, Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig declared "email bankruptcy" when faced with the thousands of unread messages dating back two years that had accumulated in his inbox. Instead of attempting to open them all - a task he said would have been impossible - he sent an automated apology to his contacts and asked that they resend their unanswered message only if it was still very important. A web search for the term "email bankruptcy" shows that several others followed suit, publicly announcing their email bankruptcy on their web sites.
* Overwhelmed by the effort that writing lengthy responses requires, designer Mike Davidson instituted a personal policy that any message he writes will be fewer than five sentences. Recipients who wonder about the brevity can get more information about the policy, which he includes in his message signature.
* One cellular company designated a weekly email-free day. Employees refrain from sending or checking email (except from customers) every Friday. Workers report that the freedom from the distraction and interruption once a week helps them accomplish a lot more.
Anyone who''s spent hours processing a backlog of email can understand why you''d take such tactics. It''s so easy to let email take the reins of your workday. All you have to do is leave your email software open while you work. Each time it notifies you that a new message has arrived, stop what you''re doing, no matter how important it is or how involved you are, and switch to your inbox. Scan the new message. If it''s an emergency, deal with it right away. If not, switch back to the task at hand. Try to remember where you were before that message arrived. At the end of the day, wonder how all those read messages accumulated in your inbox, what you''re supposed to do about them again, and where the day went.
This is how most people operate. But there is a better way.
You can reduce the amount of time you spend fiddling with email to less than 30 minutes per day. You can empty your inbox and enjoy the feeling that you''re completely caught up every single workday. You can process your messages in bunches, in between other tasks, when your mind is free and clear. You can hear "Thanks for getting back to me so quickly" from your boss and co-workers more and more often. You can elicit the response you need in shorter exchanges. You can keep your inbox free of a festering pile of unfulfilled obligations. You can become known as responsive - and therefore responsible - engaged, and reliable around the office simply by being on top of your email. Soon, wealth, fame, and fortune will ensue.
You can control your email without declaring bankruptcy or refraining from using it just because it''s a certain day of the week. Small changes and better habits practiced every day can get the constant influx of communication working for you instead of against you. This chapter provides practical strategies for getting your email under control and keeping it there.
NOTE For updates, links, references, and additional tips and tools regarding the hacks in this book, visit http://lifehackerbook.com/. (Append the chapter number - http://lifehackerbook.com/ch1/,for example - to go directly to a specific chapter''s updates.)
Hack 1: Empty Your Inbox (and Keep It Empty)
Level Easy Platforms All Cost Free
When you can empty your inbox on a regular basis, you''ve reached the ultimate level of email control. Emptying the inbox clears away that pile of unidentified pieces of information, keeps it from stacking up higher every day, and frees your mind to worry about more important work.
Why an Empty Inbox?
Your inbox is a temporary holding pen for unprocessed messages. An unprocessed email is one you haven''t made a decision about yet. When you get into the habit of deciding what to do with a new message within a day of its arrival, move it out of your inbox.
Some people enjoy keeping their inbox full so that they can glance at a list of most recent messages and see what''s going on - what they should be working on, what their group is discussing, the latest funny YouTube video that''s making the rounds. But just as you''d never leave a physical paper inbox full of documents whose only commonality is that they''re incoming, so you don''t want to leave your email inbox full of messages, either. An inbox full of read messages does you no favors: You have no way to prioritize what''s most important, or to access the message contents in their most useful context. For example, a meeting invitation that comes in via email is much more meaningful on your calendar than in your inbox. A web site address you want to visit later would do better in your bookmarks than in your email. A project document belongs in its appropriate folder, not in your email program. Everything should have its own place, and the inbox isn''t it.
Furthermore, an empty inbox lightens the psychological load of an endless list of messages staring at you every time you check your email. It creates a clear demarcation between what''s incoming and what''s been resolved or placed into motion.
This hack introduces a simple, three-folder system that keeps your inbox clear and ensures that every single message you receive is both findable and actionable without cluttering your inbox.
Set Up the Trusted Trio of Folders
The three folders you need to keep your inbox empty and your messages in process are Archive, Follow Up, and Hold, as shown in Figure 1-1.
NOTE Some email programs - most notably Gmail (http://gmail .com) - have a built-in message archive. In that case you don''t need to create an Archive label or folder. Simply use the program''s built-in archived message storage place (which you can get to by clicking on "All Mail.")
The Archive Folder
Most email you receive is stuff you don''t need right now but may need to look up later. Archive these messages. The Archive is your long-term email reference library. It''s where you place all the messages that contain information you may want to retrieve at some point in the long-term future, including any completed threads, completed requests, memos you''ve read, questions you answered, and completed project email. Basically, any email exchange that''s closed but that you may want to refer to at some point in the future belongs in the Archive.
The Archive is one single folder, with no subfolders. That''s a scary concept to those who enjoy organizing information into specifically named folders. However, you''re not a librarian, and you don''t have time to waste deciding what message should go in what folder. The archive is completely searchable. You can retrieve any message you place there later using the right search operators. For more on plucking messages out of the Archive (without a complicated folder scheme), see Hack 6, "Master Message Search."
The Follow Up Folder
Messages in your Follow Up folder represent tasks you must complete, whether that''s a response that will take more than a minute to write or whether it''s another type of action. Each of these messages maps to a task on your to-do list. A message from a long-lost high school friend whom you haven''t spoken to in years and a request from the boss to update the quarterly report would both go into the Follow Up folder because you need to follow up with an action. It''s not enough to just move this message into the Follow Up folder; make sure you also enter the task onto your to-do list - so that you''ll actually do it.
The Hold Folder
The Hold folder is a temporary holding pen for important messages you''ll need quick access to within the next few days. If you''re waiting on someone else to get back to you with crucial information, or you''re maintaining a thread about a time-sensitive topic, keep it in the Hold folder.
Examples of messages that would go in Hold are a FedEx confirmation number for a delivery that''s on its way, or a message from a co-worker that says, "I''ll get back to you Tuesday re: The Big Project."
Review the Hold folder once a week, and clear it out as the messages in it become irrelevant - such as when that FedEx package gets delivered or when your co-worker gets back to you.
Process Your Messages
Now that the three folders are in place, it''s time to empty your inbox. Whether you''re starting with an overstuffed inbox with months'' worth of messages or the two dozen that arrived since you last checked, the method is the same. Beginning with the oldest email in your inbox, open the message and do the following:
* Delete it if you don''t need it.
* Respond on the spot to quick questions or requests. Then archive or delete it.
* If it requires action that will take more than one minute to complete, move it to the Follow Up folder and add the task to your to-do list.
* If it''s an item you''re waiting on or may need within the next few days, move it to Hold. If it''s time-sensitive (your co-worker promised you the document by Friday, for instance), add a note on your calendar to check in about the item you''re waiting for.
* If it''s an informational message you may want to refer to later, move it to the Archive.
Wash, rinse, and repeat for every message in your inbox until it is completely empty.
NOTE This exact folder scheme may not work for everyone, but it''s a good start on the road to a simple, well-defined processing system. If you tweak and modify this method, just remember: the fewer folders you have, the less thought has to go into dealing with each individual message.
Keep It Empty
After you''ve emptied your inbox, keeping it that way is a matter of repeating the process a few times a day. Schedule regular email sessions - such as once mid-morning, once after lunch, and once in the late afternoon. Train yourself to follow the golden rule:
Never leave a read email in your inbox.
Make a decision about the fate of every message you read the first time you read it - no excuses. Be ruthless about this new practice. File information that incoming messages contain in its right place: dates in your calendar; project documents in their folder; web site addresses in your bookmarks. Respond on the spot to messages that need a quick yes or no. Never touch an email in your inbox more than once.
Technologist Mark Hurst wrote, "Consider that an incoming email has the shelf life of Chinese takeout in the refrigerator. It''s best to eat it as soon as it arrives; within a day is OK, but after that it starts to get funky."
Your First Time
If you''re starting out with an inbox loaded with thousands of messages, emptying it the first time can be an overwhelming task. One way to get started with your new good habits right now is to move all your existing messages into a separate, special folder (email management expert Merlin Mann calls it the "Email DMZ").
Resolve to empty your inbox each time you check from this moment forward. Then, during each processing session, after you empty your inbox, take on a handful of the oldest messages in your "DMZ" folder as well. Slowly but surely, you''ll catch up on the backlog and hone your new good habits as you go.
The Catch
Just because you have all unresolved messages filed neatly away in Follow Up and Hold doesn''t mean you''re free and clear. The trick to this system is to consistently review Follow Up folder messages (which should be on your to-do list) and Hold folder messages, and to complete the items stowed away there. To keep yourself from getting lulled into a total sense of completeness, you can mark all the messages in Hold and Follow Up as unread to easily monitor the number of outstanding items.
NOTE Special thanks to Merlin Mann, author of the Inbox Zero series (http://inboxzero.com) and "The Inbox Makeover," which appeared in MacWorld magazine (available at http://macworld.com/2005/04/ features/tipsinbox/index.php) and which greatly influenced the methods outlined in this hack.
Hack 2: Decrease Your Response Time
Level Easy Platform All Cost Free
Responding to your email in a timely manner is one of the best things you can do for your career. But no one emerges from the womb with a natural talent for parrying a constant stream of new messages vying for your attention all day long. Email responsiveness is an acquired skill - the one that just may differentiate you from everyone else in the world who''s overwhelmed by an overloaded inbox.
Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, agrees. He said, "The truth is, you are building your reputation - your brand - one response at a time. People are shaping their view of you by how you respond to them. If you are slow, they assume you are incompetent and over your head. If you respond quickly, they assume you are competent and on top of your work. Their perception, whether you realize it or not, will determine how fast your career advances and how high you go. You can''t afford to be unresponsive. It is a career-killer."
Although it''s impossible to instantly respond to the dozens of new email messages you receive every day, you can increase your responsiveness rate without becoming a slave to your inbox. This hack provides strategies for responding to your email in a timely fashion without killing your entire workday.
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Excerpted from Upgrade Your Lifeby Gina Trapani Copyright © 2008 by Gina Trapani . Excerpted by permission.
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