Minimalist Approach for your Inbox!
Rozil Anwar B.E, MBA, Harvard Business School Leadership
Global Leader in Strategic Operations & Business Transformation | Award-Winning Innovator Driving Excellence Across Industries | International QHSE & Organizational Leadership Expert
Stop “organizing” your emails by subject and start thinking of them in terms of deadlines. For years, my approach to email was like slaying a hydra. For every email I deleted, two more landed in my inbox.
DITCH SUBJECTS FOR DEADLINES
The biggest mistake, in my experience, is creating folders based on topics. Emails, like meetings, rarely stay on track. The system that saved my sanity requires only five folders:
- Inbox: the inbox is a holding pen. Emails shouldn’t stay here any longer than it takes for you to file them into another folder. The exception to this rule is when you respond immediately and are waiting for an immediate response.
- Today: Everything that requires a response today.
- This Week: Everything that requires a response before the end of the week.
- This Month/Quarter: – Everything that needs a longer-term response. Depending on your role, you many need a monthly folder. Others can operate on a quarterly basis.
- FYI: Most items I receive are informational. If I think I may need to reference an email again, I’ll save it to this folder.
SHOW NO MERCY
Email will quickly become your master if you don’t take charge. So once you embrace this system, you need to adhere to it mercilessly–there are no half measures. We tend to get more lax about newly adopted habits as their newness rubs off. But I’ve actually gotten better over time at sticking to my five-folder rule. I’m ruthless about deleting emails that don’t require my attention. Here are five tips that make the system more effective.
- Keep an actual to-do list
- Don't exaggerate your importance
- Don't exaggerate the importance of others
If your work is project-based, you can create this five-folder system for each project.