Being an action-oriented emailer

I’m not one of those people that hates email because it gets too overwhelming. I actually very much like email as it beats the alternative: unnecessary meetings, phone calls, etc. I see email as a terrific tool that allows me to work at my own pace, tackling tasks when they are most convenient to me.

But I probably feel this way because I’ve put a process around email that allows me to manage it (vs. it managing me).

Every day I get to “inbox zero”, multiple times a day. Any time I get a few minutes, I go through my email and clean it up. I have three actions I perform with email:

• Archive it
• Reply to it
• Move it

By acting on each email quickly, it helps me prioritize my workload and not feel overwhelmed by the ever-growing email inbox.

Archive and Reply are obvious actions, and if possible, I try to use those as much as possible. But often times, emails are not something I can act on immediately, so I need to move them to a place where I can get to them later.

I have two places that I move emails: Pocket and Evernote.

Pocket serves as my “to read later” list. For instance, if someone sends me an article I want to read, I will almost always throw it into my Pocket list. And like everyone I know that uses services like Pocket or Instapaper, I never get to everything I want to read on that list. This has been especially problematic for me in 2015, with my new goal of reading a ton of books.

Most of my “move it” list goes into Evernote. I have a system in Evernote where I tag things and group them, so I can act on them later. But the same could be done by putting emails into a task management system. The point is to move it into a place where you can act on it later.

In my experience, if you can find a way to control your email inbox, you’ll find yourself more relaxed, less stressed, and more in control of your work life.

Similar post – my obsession over my calendar.