The Secret to "Cracking" The Inbox

Whenever I hear a friend or colleague complain about how their email inbox is "out of control" I take the opportunity to toss out a humblebrag: I never go to sleep before getting my inbox down to ten or fewer messages. Every so often, I even get it to zero.

Like many of you, I use my inbox as something of a To Do list. If something is lurking in there for more than a day or two, it usually represents something I have to get around to doing. Right now, for example, there are 15 or so messages awaiting my response. (Only 15? Yes, that's the beauty of keeping it under 10 before bed, then culling again right before breakfast).

Of those messages, one is a memo written by a colleague I need to read, respond to, and distribute to others. Another is a suggestion of a book I should read. There's a reminder that a draft of a blog post is ready for my review, a request for a guest column in Ad Age (that's a big commitment of time, I'm letting it percolate), three meeting requests, and two requests for me to review new businesses for purposes of investment or advice. There's also a couple email news summaries (from News.me or Media Redefined) - these are sources for posts I write each Sunday night called Signal.

That's a pretty typical looking inbox for me, and about five more such emails come in every ten or so minutes. Each is a marker asking for my time. I relentlessly cull them throughout the day - if it's clear I can't take the meeting or review the business, I tell folks that right away, then delete. If Its' something I want to grok and let percolate, I leave it in the queue. And if it's clearly something I want to do, I push it along to my team to slate the meeting, take the call, or push to the next step, whatever it is.

By the end of a typical workday, I'll have about 70-90 pre-screened emails sitting patiently in my inbox, all of which I've determined demand some kind of response. This is when things can get hairy. After all, each mail probably equates to at least two or three minutes of focused time, often more. That's at least three hours of email to get through each night!

This is where my "Crack" folder comes to the rescue. Not everything that comes into your inbox is urgent. Not every message requires a response the day it was received. For me, about half the things I find worthy of my time have slower fuses - they are interesting or important, but they can wait. That book someone wants me to read? I'll send her a quick note thanking her for suggesting it, then toss the mail in "Crack," as a reminder to get the book later. Those interesting looking new business pitches? Again, thank the entrepreneur, tell him I'll review it when I get time (no promises), and boom, into Crack they go. A couple of the meeting requests can wait a day or two before I respond, I let them know I'll be back to them soon, and they also get filed in Crack.

It's this special category that has saved my inbox over the years. It's what lets me get to under 10 messages each night - and it's a simple way to make sure important stuff never "falls through the cracks" (yes, that's how it got the name - it's *not*, as some of my pals have suggested, the substance abuse I must endure so as to finish my email each day.).

Every few days, I give myself an hour or so and burrow into my Crack folder to see what's what. And here's the best part of this process: I find that about a third of the things in the folder have taken care of themselves in some way. That meeting request was cleared up in a hallway chat. The business pitch wasn't nearly as interesting as it seemed the day I received it. And the book I was going to read ended up on my desk anyway - no need to head to Amazon after all.

I'm not saying I love email, or that I wish I had more of it in my life. But I've "Cracked" the inbox dilemma with a pretty simple process, and I thought I'd share it with you all. What do you guys do?

Photo: GreenStockCreative/Shutterstock