Tackling your Inbox and Winning. How to spend less time on , whilst learning to love it a little bit more!

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Basil Young
6 years ago
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1 Tackling your Inbox and Winning How to spend less time on , whilst learning to love it a little bit more!

Email is good Email is a good way to exchange

2 is good is a good way to exchange information It is less expensive than meetings and phone calls

3 is annoying is a push technology the sender is in control We receive large amounts of unwanted or irrelevant information We must all share the blame for this

Send less to receive less On average It takes 4 minutes to write a message It takes 2 ½ minutes to read a message If all of us only ever sent each message we write to one

4 Send less to receive less On average It takes 4 minutes to write a message It takes 2 ½ minutes to read a message If all of us only ever sent each message we write to one person, none of us would have overload Use distribution lists wisely, think: who needs to know?, who wants to know Uni Info is not the only list! Demo distribution lists

You possibly send around 10-12 messages a day and

5 You possibly send around messages a day and receive You possibly have more than 100 messages lurking in your Inbox. You re feeling swamped. You spend too much time glaring at your . That s why you are here.

6 We need a system There are many David Allen, Getting Things Done: the five phases of mastering workflow are Collect Process Organize Review Do If your Inbox has more than 100 messages, you may be stuck in Phase 1!

7 Other people Inbox Delete What is it? Incubate SIDND Project plans YES (multi-step) Is it Actionable? NO File DELEG ATE YES What s the next Action? If less than 2 minutes DO IT now Refer ence Keep track Waiting for DEFER IT today ASAP Set a specific date This diagram is based on one by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done David Allen Flags for action Tasks ToDo lists Folders Calendar

8 What do we do with all the stuff that arrives in our Inboxes? You open Outlook and find 60 new messages, what do you do? Don t leave messages in your Inbox they will eat your time and your Inbox space Make some decisions. Will you be doing anything with this message? If not, delete it now!

9 Why keep our Inboxes clear? Each time you re-read a message you are wasting your precious time The longer you keep a message in your Inbox, the more time you waste as you read, re-read and re-re-read Every activity will take longer as you scroll up and down looking for information and unfinished actions If you want to keep a message, file it outside of your Inbox

10 DELETE Delete, delete, delete One less message in your Inbox, one less thing to worry about Repeat, delete, delete Uh oh hesitation you re worried you could possibly need this information in the future You probably won t... But if you are really worried, create a special folder called SIDND and store it there. Review this folder monthly. But learn to be ruthless.

11 Stuff I Dare Not Delete. Review this folder monthly Demo folders & search folders

12 Messages requiring action Can you do it right now? DO IT NOW If the action will take less then 2 minutes, then Do it now and delete the message If you know the answer, answer it immediately, then delete the message

13 Messages requiring more time or thought DEFER These are the dangerous messages; the Inbox lurkers, tormenting you each time you open Outlook. These could be your biggest time wasters. You need to defer them, but do it properly don t leave them in your Inbox Outlook has lots of tools to help you organize these messages and ensure they get dealt with Demo flags, tasks, messages to tasks

14 Defer but don t forget Some ideas: Flag for action set aside a time at the end of the day to deal with these items Move it to your Tasks folder ideal for actions requiring more time, or having several stages that need to be tracked Move it to your Calendar and set a time for dealing with it

15 DELEGATE Other people s actions There is an action required, but not by you Pass the message on to the person responsible If the outcome of the action is important to you, find some way of tracking it Ideas include Outlook tasks, or simply ask to be copied into any replies Don t keep the message in your Inbox once you have forwarded it. If you really need to keep it move it to a suitable folder, eg Waiting For, or Delegated review the contents weekly

16 Waiting For Delegated REVIEW the contents weekly

17 Other people Inbox Delete What is it? Incubate SIDND Project plans YES (multi-step) Is it Actionable? NO File DELEG ATE YES What s the next Action? If less than 2 minutes DO IT now Refer ence Keep track Waiting for DEFER IT today ASAP Set a specific date This diagram is based on one by David Allen in his book Getting Things Done David Allen Flags for action Tasks ToDo lists Folders Calendar

18 Processing your Inbox actions- The four Ds Delete it Do it (less than 2-5 mins vary according to time available) Defer it (Put it in a folder for later action, to-do lists, tasks, flags for actions, allocate time in your calendar) Delegate it (pass it on to someone else, but if it is important to you, track it!)

19 Getting organized You must be able to review your progress in dealing with messages and other actions Organize actions into groups, for example: Use your Calendar for actions that must occur at specific time transfer messages to Calendar folder Use Tasks to track projects you are committed to finish Use ToDo lists or flags to store/mark actions that must be completed as soon as possible Have a folder for waiting for items, actions you have delegated

20 Review your progress This is essential Review your Inbox, flagged items, to do lists at the end and/or beginning of every day Every week review your systems, tasks folder, waiting for folders etc As often as necessary, review longer term projects (decide on review dates in advance and add to calendar)

21 Hoarders anonymous Some of us have to keep certain messages for audits, record keeping etc You have already discovered that we just don t have enough space in our Inboxes for all the messages we want to keep Consider archiving your messages

22 Useful folders we have mentioned Search folders Archives Stuff I dare not delete review monthly Waiting for others review weekly Waiting For Stuff I Dare Not Delete

23 If you want to get your life back and spend less time noodling on and more time being creative and having fun

24 You need to change habits A system for processing will help, but it is not enough You need to establish some ground rules, agree them with colleagues Consider How frequently should you check your ? Can be switched off between reading times? What is a reasonable response time for messages? How much courtesy/etiquette is necessary?

I really enjoyed reading it and all your points were so helpful.

I agree with almost all your points, but am not quite sure that I understand

25 What would you prefer to read? Dear Sally Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my . I really enjoyed reading it and all your points were so helpful. You really are a star. I agree with almost all your points, but am not quite sure that I understand why the cost of the red carpet should be so high..blah blah Yours faithfully Petula Petula Groom Events Organizer Sally, Excellent points. Can you clarify the pricing for carpets seems high? Thanks Pet

Blitz! Finding your inbox unmanageable? Follow the tips in this document to take back control.

Blitz! Finding your inbox unmanageable? Follow the tips in this document to take back control. Finding your inbox unmanageable? Follow the tips in this document to take back control. Turn on reading pane to speed up checking When having a clear out, the reading pane lets you check the content of