E-mail has become a major problem for many of us. I get messages from potential vendors, conversations on two major mailing lists, requests from faculty, messages from my staff, and numerous other types of e-mail every day. Prior to this summer I left things in my Inbox, I admit it. I deleted what I could, handled what I could, and left the other things there to be handled later. They weren’t. They scrolled off my screen and I never looked at them again.
I have changed my behavior. Every time I go to my Inbox, I empty it completely. Here is my procedure.
1. I don’t monitor e-mail constantly. I have turned off notification when a message arrives, so that I am not tempted to stop what I am doing and handle it at that instant.
2. I usually check my e-mail every hour or so. If I am busy on a major project, it might be once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
3. Every time I check my e-mail, I completely empty my Inbox. There is nothing left in it. I do this by doing one of the following things to each message:
a. Delete it, either unread or after a brief glance. If it isn’t something I need, I get rid of it quickly. I should point out that I save all my deleted mail in a personal folder in Outlook, so I can always find anything if I need to. Deleting it removes it from my Inbox and implies that I don’t have to do anything with it. I delete lots of messages unread, particularly those from mailing lists. If the subject does not seem relevant, I don’t even open it up.
b. Reply to it, if the reply can be done quickly. If someone asks me for a meeting I check my calendar and send a reply. If someone needs some information I quickly locate it and send a reply. If I need clarification about something someone has sent me, I send a reply, asking for more information. The goal is to move quickly, either handling the issue or passing responsibility back to the sender.
c. Forward it to someone who can take action. If there is someone on my staff who can handle the request, I forward it to him or her. If there is someone else at UM who handles the service that is requested, I forward it to that person. I usually copy the sender, so everyone knows who has responsibility for the next step.
d. Move the message to the “To File” folder. I get lots of things that I want to store in one of the many projects I am working on. Rather than filing them right now, I put them in the “To File” folder for later action. Things in the “To File” folder are usually moved out into our project collaboration sites, project folders, or Blackboard sites. Since that takes some time and effort, I don’t do it immediately. I want to clear the Inbox now. Then I will go back and handle the filing. And if I don’t get to a point where I handle the filing, at least the items are all in one location, separate from the deleted items.
e. Move the message to the “Move to Tasks” folder. If the e-mail requests that I do something that takes more than a minute or two, I move the message to the “Move to Tasks” folder. In Outlook it is possible to just drag an e-mail from any folder into the Tasks folder and create the task. If it is a very simple task, I do that. But if I will need to do a number of steps or get in touch with a number of people, I put it into the “Move to Tasks” folder. Be sure to always assign a completion date to a task, so it will reappear and not slip through the cracks.
f. Move the message to the calendar. If the message has certain dates/times that are important, I immediately drag the item to my calendar. That reserves the time and attaches the information I will need at that time. In cases where I have an urgent task, I will drag the task to the calendar, setting aside time to complete it, rather than using the “Move to Tasks” folder, where it might sit for awhile.
4. When I am completed with this process, my Inbox contains zero items. Either then or later, I take the time to go through the Move to Tasks and To File folders and process the items in them. They should be emptied, as well, although it isn’t necessary to do that each time you work with them.
The two main sources that I have used to get this working is the wonderful book by David Allen, “Getting Things Done.” It teaches a much more complex process, classifying tasks according to context. So you have a task list for phone calls, and a task list for things you can do on the computer, and a task list for things you can do at your desk, and so on. It also teaches the concept of “Next Action.” If you are trying to juggle multiple tasks, keeping track of the next action for each task can keep everything moving forward.
The other source is a presentation by Merlin Mann at a Google Tech Talk. You can watch it online by going to http://tinyurl.com/2xywym if you are interested. It is an hour long, but I found it very interesting.
Google Tech Talks have some wonderful material. Go to http://video.google.com/googleplex.html to find them.
Finally, what drove me to do this was my iPhone. It is incredible. But I wanted control over what was in the Inbox, so I wouldn’t have to spend so long downloading and looking at old messages. So I implemented my version of Inbox Zero. Let me know what you do, if you have a different process, OK?
Bill Vilberg
