| Take a look in your email inbox- how many | | | | time to get through them- organizing reference |
| messages do you have in there? A few hundred? A | | | | information and responding to actions. Eventually, you |
| few thousand? Believe it or not, there are actually | | | | will be able to clear out your inbox of the older |
| people who have accumulated thousands of emails in | | | | information and simply work on a daily list of emails, |
| their inbox. If this is you, it's probably a good time to | | | | one at a time. |
| take a look at how you are processing the incoming | | | | The "4 D's of Decision Making" |
| emails, and see if you can improve the time spent on | | | | Are you constantly opening and reading the same |
| reading and responding to email actions. | | | | email messages over and over- and marking them |
| Here are four steps you can start taking TODAY, | | | | "as new" again to refer back to later because you |
| that will make a huge difference in the amount of | | | | just aren't sure what to do with it at this time? The |
| time you spend on email related tasks. Effective | | | | reference/action classification will help you with that; |
| email time management starts right now! | | | | as will the 4 D's of Decision Making model. |
| Schedule Email Time | | | | Handling email once is more efficient, and will increase |
| How many times a day are you interrupted by the | | | | your productivity. Making a decision the first time you |
| "ding" that notifies you when an email has arrived in | | | | open your email is paramount to effective time |
| your inbox? Also think about the number of total | | | | management. You have four choices to select from |
| interruptions you get each day- from the telephone, | | | | using this model of decision making, including: |
| people stopping at your desk or office, instant | | | | |
| messaging, etc. Scheduling an hour per day to work | | | | 1. Deleting |
| through the information received in your inbox | | | | 2. Doing |
| (moving files to your reference folders, or carrying | | | | 3. Delegating |
| out the actions required of action emails) can make a | | | | 4. Deferring |
| huge difference in the amount you accomplish. | | | | Delete: Probably half of the email you get, if not |
| Depending on the nature of your work, you may | | | | more, can just be deleted immediately. Do that |
| need to check your email more frequently for more | | | | instead of saving it "for later" or "for when I have |
| pressing emails requiring actions right away, but | | | | time" and you'll eliminate a ton of unnecessary work |
| having at least one hour per day, specifically | | | | later on. |
| scheduled to deal with what's in the email inbox and | | | | Doing: If the action required in an email will take you |
| to not allow phone calls or other interruptions, will | | | | two minutes or less, don't even think about filing it or |
| make a huge difference. | | | | saving it to do for later. That's what your one hour |
| If possible, don't leave your email program running | | | | time block is for- just get it done and feel good |
| throughout the day while you're working on | | | | about the accomplishment. For reference emails, get |
| something else. Every time you check to see what | | | | it filed where it belongs and then you can delete the |
| email is coming in, you lose focus on what you're | | | | email from the inbox. Probably about a third of your |
| working on and it takes time to get it back. If you | | | | email can actually be "done" in less than 2 minutes. |
| must check it frequently for urgent messages, just | | | | Delegating: For emails that can't be deleted, and you |
| open it when you are in between projects, or waiting | | | | can't get it done in about two minutes, what about |
| for something to boot up, etc. | | | | delegating it to someone else to do? If you can |
| Classification | | | | delegate it, compose a quick email in under two |
| All email can be classified as either "reference" or | | | | minutes to send it to someone else to do! |
| "action" email. Statistics show us that learning how to | | | | Deferring: For a select few emails that just can't be |
| do this can save you up to 50 minutes per day on | | | | deleted, and can only be done BY YOU, and it will |
| filing and finding information. That's almost 7 hours a | | | | take you longer than two minutes to get it done, |
| week, and well worth the time it will take you to | | | | you will defer them until sometime after your |
| learn this technique! | | | | dedicated hour of email processing time. This is |
| Reference Email: This is material that you receive in | | | | important- if you launch into doing tasks that take |
| your email that you do not have to do a specific | | | | longer than two minutes or so during your email time, |
| task with; but you want to keep it so you can refer | | | | you've neglected all of the other emails in your inbox. |
| to it at a later date. You need to store these in email | | | | So you defer the longer action emails for a scheduled |
| folders, in the My Documents area of your computer, | | | | work time by scheduling it on your to do list or |
| or in paper form within file cabinets. | | | | calendar, or scheduling a meeting, etc. |
| Action Email: This is data that you use to actually | | | | If you do the above on a daily basis, you can really |
| complete an action. You need what is in the email to | | | | improve your time management efficiency for dealing |
| carry out the action. This information is typically | | | | with your emails. On average, it's been found that |
| saved on a to-do list, a calendar, or in a project | | | | people can typically process about 100 emails in an |
| management system. | | | | hour using the 4 D's decision making model and the |
| One at a Time | | | | above tips for handling emails. Statistically, 50% of |
| It can be extremely difficult to resist the temptation | | | | your email can be deleted immediately, 30% of email |
| to open emails in a random order- based on what | | | | can be delegated or completed by yourself in about |
| looks most interesting to you as you open your | | | | two minutes, and 20% of email can be deferred until |
| inbox up! Systematically working through the emails | | | | a later, scheduled work time. |
| one at a time, starting from the top, is a much | | | | If you currently have a backlog of emails, just set |
| better approach and will increase productivity and | | | | aside larger chunks of time to start getting through |
| decrease time spent on email related tasks. Use your | | | | the old messages. Start each day with an hour of |
| email program to arrange emails by date, so that the | | | | email time, working through your newest received |
| oldest or most recent emails are at the top of the | | | | emails, and then schedule additional time to go |
| list. | | | | through the old emails. Before you know it, you will |
| If you've got a backlog of emails in your inbox to | | | | be working with daily messages only- and enjoying |
| work through, you will want to schedule blocks of | | | | your newfound email productivity! |