Do you ever marvel how it seems like some people never forget about anything they delegate or how some people seem highly focused and responsive in spite of how busy they are? If you listen to this podcast all the time, this one is going to be a bit different. This is a "just do it and get it under control" kind of episode.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

1. My favorite planner: The FULL FOCUS Planner by Michael Hyatt.

2. "Getting Things Done" by David Allen

3. Stack Method for e-mail management

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Do you ever marvel how it seems like some people never forget about anything they tasked or how some people seem highly focused and responsive in spite of how busy they are?

Email can be a huge time-sink for busy professionals and if you are on your way to the C-Suite, this is one thing you can (and should) master now. If you listen to this podcast all the time, this one is going to be a bit different. This more of a “just do it and get it under control” kind of episode. If you are subscribed to my weekly newsletter, curated especially for introverted executives, then you know I sent out a poll back in January, asking for topics you wanted me to talk about in the future. There is a link in the show notes to subscribe to my Rise and Shine Newsletter in the show notes if you haven’t yet. Email management surprisingly was the number one requested response. What that told me is that, in spite of all the other ways available to communicate, email is alive and well – and if not managed can quickly get out of control and become quite overwhelming.

The good news is: there are a lot of things you can do to reduce it, automate it, manage it and focus it so you stay on top of things and never miss anything important.

Before we really get into the heart of it – I just want to say that email is not the work. Email is communication about work – you should look at each email like a potential task. Again – it is not the work. There are many people who simply wait and respond to emails all day. I suppose if your job is a helpdesk or you are monitoring a “contact us” service – you might be required to have fast email response time. And granted, there are some job descriptions where a fast email response time is a requirement. For a large portion of people, that is not the case. It is easy to spend your entire day responding to email, essentially as a new one pops in your box – you could begin responding to it, as if it were your number one priority. The problem with that is: you likely do have something else that is actually your number one priority and by responding to every email the second it arrives; you use up all of your time and don’t get your real priority accomplished. I have some solutions for this in the manage and focus portions of this episode.

So – let’s jump in.

REDUCE:

The amount of email that comes in everyday is unbelievable. First, let’s talk about how to reduce the amount of email you get (or that you generate for other people, this is definitely a two-way street!

1. If your company allows communication via Slack or internal chat applications, consider using those options for super quick communication needs. Your colleagues will thank you if they don’t have to open a bunch of emails just to see a one line note that could have been a chat. This episode is not about Slack, but I could go on and on about how well it facilitates team coordination. My 9-5 does not allow Slack communication due to classification issues, but with many other organizations and teams I am involved with in the rest of my life – we use it prolifically. We are able to use Microsoft Teams chat, which is fairly useful. I prefer Slack over MS Teams because it is so clean and simple. You can create channels for specific efforts or topics, have group conversations, tag people, share files, links, and search for keywords. If you are allowed and urged to use Slack in your organization and yet use email for one-line conversations – it is time to move forward.

Email Bankruptcy. One of my favorite productivity experts, Michael Hyatt – who is the designer of my favorite productivity system, the Full Focus Planner (I’ll put an affiliate link to that planner in the show notes if you are interested.) Anyway – in one of the discussions Michael Hyatt had on the topic of email, he talked about a point where you may want to just declare “Email Bankruptcy”. An example of this might be if you have never employed any real email management practice before and you have thousands of unread emails – it is unrealistic and probably not useful for you to actually go and read them all. It could take a month of your time – time you could be creating something wonderful in the world. In email bankruptcy, you literally just select all your unread email and delete it, ha ha. If it is important – someone will send it again.

Ok- here is how I would actually declare email bankruptcy:

1. Create a file in your inbox for old unread email.

2. Sort your inbox by “from” and look at anyone who you care about (bosses, leadership, direct reports, friends, family, key colleagues…) Flag anything you want to read and process.

3. Sort your inbox by subject and flag anything that you want to process.

4. Sort by file size, largest file size on top – there may be files you need to save for your records, flag those for processing.

5. Sort by date – anything that is more than 30 days old and not flagged – move to the “Old Unread File”.

6. Scroll through the unflagged items that are less than 30 days and flag anything you know you want to process or respond to.

7. Finally – sort by flagged items and move anything unflagged to the old-unread email folder.

8. Only flagged items should be remaining in your box – process these items. There will be more helpful tips for doing this in the manage your email section of this episode.

AUTOMATE:

Let’s talk about automating some of your email processing via rules. Most email applications allow for email rulesets that help reduce or categorize your email. For example: Gmail now has tabs for promotional and also for social media emails. This allows you to remain in your “primary” inbox with less distractions. In most email applications can also use rulesets to filter items such as things you are cc:d on (thus not expected to take immediate action on) to a review file, so that you will be able to see only the items where you are in the “TO LINE” more quickly. You get creative with the rulesets – but I do want to caution you. Unless you have an established routine to review the items that are sent via rulesets to other folders, you may forget to look at them and miss something where you should have been on the “TO LINE”.

MANAGE:

Ok – now we can get down to actually managing your email. It is possible to manage your email more effectively and reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with it. If you do have an executive assistant – they can help you will this. If you don’t have an executive assistant yet- no matter how busy you are these tips will help you!

1. I recommend creating routines that include checking your email at specific times of the day. This will help you stay focused and avoid getting overwhelmed. I have a start work routine and an end of work routine, and I fully process all my email at those times no matter what – and I also usually spend about 5-10 minutes when I come back to my office after I have been out for an hour or more (at a meeting, etc.) This gives me 3-5 times a day where I have focused email processing time.

The best thing you can do for your colleagues and readers of the emails you write is to create useful subject lines.

If you are washing dishes or daydreaming – let me say that again – “create useful subject lines!” I had one colleague I used to work with and he had a habit of replying to an email about one topic and asking a question about a completely different, unrelated topic – and sometimes to people who were on the first email, but not directly responsible for the first topic – and then my colleague would get very annoyed when no one responded to his email about the new topic. It is simple – you will do everyone, including yourself, a favor if you treat the subject like a HEADLINE, and make sure if you change topics on an email string – just create a new email or at the very least – change the SUBJECT line, it is common sense.

3. Only open emails that require a response. Not all emails require a response, and trying to answer every email can be overwhelming and counterproductive. Try to only open emails that require a response, and delete or archive the others. This will help you stay focused and get more done. Most email programs let you see the first couple of lines before you take the action to open an email. There are many emails you can just select and delete or select and archive. Do this.

4. Respond quickly to urgent messages, and delegate less important ones. Not all messages are created equal, and some will require a more immediate response than others. Try to prioritize urgent messages and delegate less important ones. This will help you stay on top of the most important emails and avoid getting bogged down in minutiae. I am going to give you two different methods to do this that were created by other productivity experts in a moment.

5. Use templates for common responses. If you find yourself sending the same types of responses over and over, consider using templates. This will save you time and help you stay consistent in your communications. You can create a file of templates in word docs or Google docs. One of my favorite tricks is to put these types of responses in an “Email Signature”. At work, we use the enterprise version of outlook. There are somethings that people ask me all the time, such as “What do I need to do to submit a visit request” for your Command or “what are the directions to get to your building”. I have an email signature titled: “Visit request and directions” and all I have to do is select that and it drops into my email – a 5 second response that would take 5 minutes (or more) if I had to recreate it each time. Depending on your position and type of work, you could have 10-20 of these types of common responses. Some of them require some personalization, but you can still have a template with blanks that you personalize with the specific info as needed. This is a good use of an hour of deep work time – brainstorm some templates and create a few. It’s a game changer. Work with your entire team and create and share some together – that is when you supercharge the entire team’s productivity!

6. Turn off notifications for new emails, just turn them off. If you have solid routines for checking your email – them the notifications will keep you from focusing on your deep work. Email is kind of like Facebook – you keep getting the “hits” like a drug. Don’t worry, you won’t forget to check.

8. Use a task manager to keep track of important tasks that need to be completed. Task managers can be a great way to keep track of important tasks that need to be completed. If you find yourself constantly forgetting about things, try using a task manager to help you stay organized.

Ok, let’s talk about two different philosophies for managing email developed by productivity gurus:

David Allen from “Getting Things Done” – processing email method:

- Email comes in – is it actionable?

- No: Delete or archive

- Yes: Will it take less than two minutes to respond? Respond immediately

- Yes: Longer than 2 minutes – decide to delegate it or defer it. If you defer it, eiter immediately schedule time on your calendar to do it or add it to a task list to prioritize later. If you delegate it, put it in a “Waiting on” folder

Stack Method - https://www.doublegemini.com/

1 REPLY – things that are fast to reply to – 5 minutes or less.

2 DO (5+) – anything that will take 15 minutes or more, you literally open up your calendar and schedule time on the calendar

3 MEET – if you need to schedule a time to meet with people

4 REMIND – BCC yourself when you send a tasking or delegating email and drag the copy to you remind folder. All of your outstanding requests will be seen at one time here.

5 FORWARD – anything you want to forward anyone.

6 REVIEW – Anything you are cc:d on but want to read (you can create a rule to automatically place things here.)

7 WHEN -- You can add sub folders here – taxes,

FOCUS:

How do you actually get things done? Anything you really want to get done: schedule time on your calendar and turn off notifications and when the time comes, honor your commitment to yourself. This part take disciple and is always a work in progress for many people, but it is kind of like eating well or exercising, the more you do it – the easier it gets and the better you get at it. This is one area where an executive coach can really help improve your productivity and focus.

CONCLUSION:

Ok – we talked about a lot today. I am so excited for you to start your week refreshed. Don’t try to start all of these ideas at once, but definitely save this episode and start putting some of them into practice. I add some of the key resources in the show notes and the weekly newsletter in case you are driving and can’t take notes. No one is perfect, including me – but when you fall off – just decide to refocus and start again. Getting your inbox in control is a good habit goal to set. Keep track of everyday you process your inbox.

When you use the methods, you really can stay at inbox zero – although I am the first person to maintain that that is not the actual goal. The purpose of efficiently processing your box is to make sure you don’t miss anything important and that you respond to things you truly care to respond to. You will come across like you have it all together and will follow-up like a queen!

Let me know as you try this in the next week – You’ve got this! - go manage your email like the boss you are!