3 Ways To Love Email And Master Your Inbox

Whether you like it or not, you have to use email for your profession.

On the one hand, email is the best protocol for messages regarding speed, cost, and privacy. On the other hand, email can be a source of misery and dread, hindering us from doing what is important. It is like a black hole you constantly have to attend to, sucking up all joy and autonomy.

Fortunately, with the right approach, you can enjoy your email experience and thus become very effective both in and outside the email inbox. Below are three ways to make it happen.

Use Email as communication only

Most knowledge workers tend to treat the inbox as?everything. Not only as a communication tool but also a to-do list, project manager, notification system, reading list, reference library, note-taking app, etc. All while being bombarded with new emails while trying to find the information needed for other, more important work, creating severe cognitive dissonance because they are ineffective at?both?doing the work and answering email.

No wonder why people burn out. I would not wish that chaos even on my worst enemy.

Instead, you need to use email as?communication only. Only visit the inbox to read new messages and respond. Use other solutions (like my?1-Glance system) for everything to-do and references.

However, it takes some initial work to essentialize email. Future posts will dive more into detail on how to do it step-by-step.

Be systematic when dealing with email

Instead of treating email haphazardly, you need to do?one?of the following six things for?every?email you receive

1. Archive if not important. You will still have access to it but it is not in your face anymore.
2. Reply immediately and then archive, unless you need to give a more thoughtful response. If so, check number 4 on this list.
3. Add an item to your?calendar?and then archive.
4. Add as a new task?to your?daily to-do list. Include the email link! Then archive
5. Forward to your reference system, and then archive
6. Send to a Read Later app?like?Pocket?or?Instapaper, and then archive

You will no longer fear incoming messages since you know how to handle them. Future posts will dive deeper into each option.

Be extremely clear on when, how and why you use email

Instead of checking email all the time, you need to set some?rules. You want to deal with your inbox?as rarely as possible. Depending on your job, it can range from once every half hour to every other day.

The minimum frequency does not matter, as long as you are ok with it and have the checks scheduled.

But then you think, “what if I expect an important email to arrive?”. If you are waiting on a particular response, you can VIP the sender. Thus you will receive a notification from them and no one else. Win-win.

By using email as communication only, dealing with it systematically and know-how and when to use it, you can?stop drowning?and start to enjoy?effortless surfing. You become its master, not its slave.

The next posts will go deeper into how you realize it in practice.