[This is part 5 in the RPG Productivity Player’s Guide series.]
Email truly has become a monster. It’s threatening our focus, our ability to get things done, and at points, even our sanity. So how do we slay this monster?
Like any monster really, with a hard, consistent attack.
You know what happens in games, right? When you merely wound a monster, it will withdraw to regain strength—and then come back twice as strong. You have to obliterate it in such a way that it’s gone forever.
Here’s how.
1. Send Fewer Emails
Here’s a truth many people don’t realize: the fewer emails you send, the fewer you will receive. Easy as that.
Handle the big things via phone or a personal conversation instead of sending 20 emails back and forth. I sometimes get emails that are like 10 paragraphs long, where people ask all kinds of questions that require tons of explanations. Email doesn’t work in those cases. Instead, I call them.
Include all info in your first email, so people don’t have to follow up with more questions. When asking for an appointment, send multiple options instead of just one. Don’t cc twenty others and for crying out loud, stop bcc’ing all together.
2. Treat It Like A Mailbox
A healthy approach to your email inbox is to treat it like your regular mailbox. Do you check that thing five times a day? No? Then why would you do it with your email? Check it once and empty it completely. Maybe a zero-inbox policy is unattainable for you, but at least set a goal to keep it low. My email inbox is below 10 every day after I’ve handled it.
And the most important decision of al: turn off email notifications, both on your phone and your desktop. These notifications are the trigger that makes you go off course, off focus, off being productive. I know, this is a tough one—some people are almost addicted to these plings and wooshes. But it really is the most productive decision you can make.
3. Email Time is Unproductive Time
Tackle your email at a time of day where your energy is low. Don’t waste your best, most productive hours on answering emails. For me, that means doing it in the afternoon, since I’m a morning person who wants o dedicate her morning to writing.
4. Create An Email Workflow
Emails are to do’s most of the time. You either have to read them and do something with them, like answering, archiving, going to a website, or whatever. The best way to handle email is by designing a consistent workflow. Here’s mine:
Every email I can handle in under 5 minutes, I tackle right away. A quick reply, marking something on my schedule, sending something at a person’s request, checking out an offer to see of it’s worth my time and money—I do all these right away.
If it takes more than 5 minutes, it depends. If it’s a ‘brain-intensive’ thing, I put it on my to do list for a productive time. If not (like checking out an Amazon offer or something), I do it in the afternoons or evenings when I have some unproductive time.
The key is to have a workflow. The emails I still have to handle for instance, go in an email ‘to handle’ folder, but they also go on my to do app (I use Wunderlist) since that is my central to do list. That’s the only way I know for certain what I still have to tackle. Using your email inbox as a second or third to do list is a bad idea.
If I can’t handle an email right away because I’m waiting for someone else to do something, it goes in my ‘To handle’ folder as well, but I also put it on my Waiting For list—which I check a few times a week.
5. Use Rules
Email Rules—you know, the automated email rules you can set up in your email client that automatically do certain actions based on triggers—are your biggest friend. I use rules for various actions:
- To weed out consistent spam that is not filtered out by my email client, based on trigger words.
- To put certain email subscriptions I have in specific folders so they don’t clutter my email inbox (if you do this, be sure to put going through these on your to do list. If you don’t do this and you don’t miss them, unsubscribe).
- To automatically forward certain emails to Evernote, like Amazon order confirmations, admin stuff from my husband, etc (I do all my admin in Evernote, so it’s automatically in the right place).
- To auto-respond to certain emails.
6. Be Ruthless in Unsubscribing
ChurchMag Staff Writer Phil Schneider wrote a brilliant post the other day about creating space in your life by quitting certain things. Email is a great way to do that. Be ruthless in unsubscribing to lists that offer you little or no value.
7. Manage Expectations
If you say you’re off, but you’re still answering emails, you’re creating the expectation that people can dump stuff in your lap on your day off. If you always answer every email immediately, this is what people will come to expect from you. They might even send another email if you haven’t reacted in a day. Is that what you want?
Decide for yourself what you think is a reasonable expectations for people to have from you when it comes to email. Then act accordingly. If necessary, set up an autoreply when you’re off or offline for a few days so people will know when to expect a answer.
8. Write Clear, Concise Emails
How you write your emails makes all the difference as well. Don’t be afraid to be brutally short in your answers. My husband and I have a running joke where we answer with three letters to an email from the other: ack. Sometimes, that’s all you need to let the other know, is that you’ve read the email and acknowledge the content. Don’t feel obligated to put a whole lot of personal stuff into every email and if you do, copy-paste to your heart’s delight.
Sometimes, I don’t even reply to emails at all. I don’t feel obligated to answer everyone who emails me, especially if it’s unrequested and time consuming—like people emailing me to ask for free youth ministry resources for instance.
If you reply to an email, include the original email so people know what you’re responding to. Sounds like a no-brainer, but I get (late) replies to my emails all the time where even after reading the subject line, I have no idea what it’s about. Total waste of time.
If you write an email to ask somebody for something, make sure to be clear and concise as well:
- Use a short, sweet and spot-on subject line.
- Make your question or request crystal clear.
- Include a deadline if there is one.
- Include all necessary info the other person needs to make a decision.
- Check for spelling and grammar gaffes and make sure to check all links.
- Include options when appropriate (Would you like to bring a salad or a dessert? If Thursday doesn’t work for you, next Tuesday or Wednesday between 10 and 11 would work for me as well).
9. Don’t Over-Organize Your Inbox
Email clients have great search options nowadays, so there’s really no need for having 25 different folders. Create a few ones that are necessary aside from the ones that are obligatory (junk, trash, etc) and that’s it.
10. Handle Email from the Top
Especially when your inbox is overflowing, start at the top. This will prevent you from responding to older messages that have already been updated or even outdated by newer ones.
If you’re looking at a 100+ email inbox right now, take one day to work through them all. Dedicate one focused block of time to get through them for the last time and then set up your new routine and make it stick. At the end of the day, it’s all about changing your habits, about creating small changes that result in a big difference.
Bonus Tip:
Don’t ever, ever, ever answer an email when you’re emotional. It’s a recipe for disaster. Yup, been there, done that.
Eric Dye says
Great timing with this, Rachel. I need to reread this a few more times and just let this post soak in…
Rachel Blom says
Consistency really is key here. Staying on top of your email is not a one time thing, it’s a consistent course of action. But oh, the satisfaction of that empty inbox 🙂