eSoup

Email Ninja Moves: Zeroing out your inbox

This is Part 1 of the eSoup series about establishing healthy email habits and taming your rambunctious inbox.

It all starts here--Step 1 is zeroing out your inbox.

Once we get it zeroed out, the goal is to zero it out each day so it never gets to the point where it's a big hairy beast that you're scared to look at.

Keep in mind this is my own approach, and it works for me, but depending on what your job is you may have to tweak the strategy a bit to fit your needs.

The Triage Approach

Some of you are probably gasping at the thought of zeroing out your inbox every single working day.

"Zero it out every day? That's crazy talk!", you proclaim.

Ahh, it actually isn't, if you know the trick, and the trick is that you zero out your inbox by processing (decide on a "next action") your email, rather than replying to each and every one. More on this later, but first...

In order to get this tedious zeroing out job done, we need to implement the "Email Triage" approach.

I found the "triage"/email metaphor over at 43 Folders, and I love it:

"I think the roots of the term are indeed in medicine, where patients are dealt with based on one of three (hence, "tri"€) statuses: those who can survive with immediate help, those who can wait, and those who won'€™t make it no matter what.

The fascinating thing to me about the metaphor is that the status of one patient is almost always necessarily based on the status of the others, and new additions re-jigger the equation. Just like in to-do lists."

We're going to take this "triage" approach with the overflowing inbox--1) some of the emails can survive with immediate help, 2) others can wait, and 3) others won't make it no matter what.

We have to ruthlessly accept these facts and process accordingly so that we can get in and out ASAP.

Let the triaging begin: The 7 Steps

1) Turn off the Auto-check feature on your email client.

The reason for this is that while we're in performing surgery on the inbox, we don't want any more patients running in demanding treatment. We'll get to those newbie emails soon, but right now we need to stop the influx so we can concentrate on the task at hand. (BTW--I think for most email clients such as Thunderbird, Eudora, and Outlook, that you would find the Auto-check feature by looking at "Tools" => "Options".)

2) Delete spam and junk mail--you can do this by sorting by subject or doing a search through the entire message.

Hopefully by searching for stuff like "viagra", "valium", "sex", etc, you'll bring up bunches of emails at a time that you can delete. (Thank God I don't have Adsense on my blog or I'd be scared to think what ads would come up based on this tip :).)

3) Sort the newsletters out and put in an "Archive" folder. Again, you can do this by sorting or searching.

4) Sort blog comments out and put in "Archive" folder.

5) Sort/search for emails from family and friends and file in "Archive" folder.

6) Anything that looks like it needs a response, transfer to a "Pending" folder.

7) Keep on sorting into "Pending" (stuff you need to reply to now), "Archive" (stuff you want to save, but don't need to look at right now), and "Trash".

  Light At The End Of The Tunnel 
  Originally uploaded by P-Kittye.

The light at the end of the tunnel

At this stage in the game, you are simply a sorting machine--don't respond to anything right now.

Remember, you're processing the emails, rather than replying to each one. You're trashing, archiving or putting in a pending folder.

Go for speed and don't get distracted by your sister's email with photos of her son's b-day party--just quickly put that one in "archive".

By the end of your mad sorting session, you will have a pristine, springtime fresh, zeroed out inbox.

You will also have a "Pending" folder that contains emails that can survive with immediate help, an "Archive" folder that contains emails that can wait, and a trash can full of emails that won't make it no matter what.

Whew--even though you haven't responded to any emails at this time, it sure does feel good when your inbox is completely clean!

"Pending" folder Blitzkrieg

With the inbox at zero, now you can start going through the "Pending" folder.

The goal is to get in the zone and process ASAP--think blitzkrieg. There's no time to dilly dally--you're in and you're out.

Some pointers:

• Try to make your responses as short as possible. This is not the time to wax poetic ;-).
• Processs the easiest emails first. If you run across an email that looks like it will take you more than 2 minutes to answer it, save it for the end.
• If you have emails that are on similar topics, try to do those in a bunch. This will help you get your momentum going
• As you process each email, transfer it to "Archive" if you'd like to save it, or "Trash" if you never need to lay eyes on it again.
• When you're done, you may still have emails sitting in your "Pending" folder that you're unable to process at the moment--this is fine, just as long as you've decided what the "next action" is for that email. Whether it's that you need more info from someone in order to proceed or that you need to delegate the answering of that email to someone else, then you're alright.
• Remember, you are a ninja. No emotion-- just process, process, process.

I know, this is not the way you wanted to spend your afternoon. Processing bunches of emails is no party, but I promise you, when your inbox is all shiny and clean and you notice that your "Pending" folder is  getting smaller and smaller, your spirits will be raised, and a huge weight will be lifted off your shoulders.

For those in the "Gazillion + Club"

If you've got a gazillion or more emails sitting in your inbox, then I suggest you tackle the heaping pile in shifts. You might want to work for 20 minutes, then take a break, then come back. Have a care for your sanity and don't push yourself to get it done all in one sitting.

Be patient, take breaks, and take heart in knowing that when you finish your zeroing out that your email  will be back under your control.

Coming Next Week...

Filters to the Rescue: Setting up your email filters

Be like water, my friend

  be like water, my friend 
  Originally uploaded by mudman_.

If you've been hearing folks talk about "GTD this" and "GTD that", and telling you "You've gotta cultivate a mind like water", and asking you what your "next action" is and have been wondering what cult they've enlisted in that has such lingo ;)...then you might want to pop on over to KG's blog to check out my post over there today:

The Best Organizational System (Part 2) — Continuation of last week's post on "Getting Things Done" (GTD)

This guest post includes the answers to these questions:

Reader question: Is there one catch-all system under which writers can organize everything related to a writing project?

Also, one reader asked in a comment from last week's post: Is GTD something you buy?

The post was written with writers in mind, but to tell you the truth, GTD is for everyone, no matter what they do for a living. If you can take away just a few  simple things from the post to make a lasting impact in the quality of your life, they would be:

1) Our ability to be productive is directly in proportion to our ability to relax (this is the "mind like water" part).

2) Stop trying to keep info in your brain (get it into a list)

Embracing one or more of these two ideas will have an immediate, dramatic impact on how we approach our work.

We've been conditioned to think that if we try hard enough that we can function as a computer functions--having multiple applications open simulaneously all operating at 100% all the time.

But we're human and our brains just don't work like that! :-)

The ultimate goal is to live with a "mind like water"--isn't that a lot more inspiring than trying to function like a parralel processing computer?

eSoup Series: Email Ninja Moves

  ninja 
  Originally uploaded by grey goat.

Whenever I talk to entrepreneurs who want to enlist my help in getting their businesses more organized, I always ask them this question:

"Is there anything that you know needs to get done that you find yourself consistently avoiding?"

Without fail, the answer is always one little word: "Email".

Usually this admission is accompanied by a heartfelt sigh, an air of regret, and maybe a little guilt and frustration. That's completely understandable--email is a slippery slope, and if you're not consistently on top of it, it can quickly get out of hand and take over your life.

What I do is just have the client forward all of his email to me, then I handle it each day for him. So, not only do I process my  own email, but I also handle multiple email accounts on behalf of multiple clients.

To most folks that might sound like an undiscovered circle of Dante's hell ;), but I actually find it fun to do email, and because I handle a good bit of it everyday, I've pretty much gotten it down to a science.

Since email seems to be a common a source of dread and shame ;) for folks, I thought I'd share some of my tried and tested email ninja moves along with the steps that I go through to tame an out-of-control inbox.

There are about 10 steps to this process, so I'll think I'll do one step per post and publish maybe 1 or 2 posts per week on this subject. Don't worry--this is not complicated and does not require any electronic devises or special plug-ins. It's just good old-fashioned organizing, and anyone can do it.

It all must start with a clean slate though, so the first post I'm working is called "HowTo Zero Out Your Inbox". This is the most challenging step, but I think it's the most fun (yes, I am warped!). This is where you get your adrenaline going and get into "blitz clean" mode.

Once the inbox is all fresh and clear, it's all downhill from there.

Watch for that post to come out on Thursday and get ready to kiss your over-crowded inbox good-bye!