This year it was forty years ago that the first e-mail was sent, starting a double-edged revolution in communication. Most of us are bombarded by messages each day, their in-boxes overflowing into an uncontrollable torrent of information, action requests and trivial matters. An overflowing full in-box seriously undermines your effectiveness. A full in-box is stressful as there is always this pile of stuff to deal with.
Productivity gurus such as David Allen have developed methods to help us deal with busy lives.1. Others, such as Merlin Mann, stated the Inbox Zero website.
The best method to manage your in-box in inspired by battlefield medicine and the principles of triage. Triage is the process of determining the priority of treatment for the wounded based on the severity of their condition.
To be able to manage your inbox and achieve the goal of a zero inbox you should apply ruthless triage on every e-mail that come across your accounts.
- Archive: Anything that contains information for future reference — save the message somewhere outside your in-box.
- Delegate: If you have the luxury of being able to delegate, do so.
- Respond:
- Defer: If it does not have to be done immediately, place the e-mail in your action list or calendar. Don’t use your in-box as an action list.
- Do: If it takes less than a few minutes, just get it done.
- Delete: Anything that does not require further action should be removed from your in-box.
Six simple principle to minimise the amount of stuff in your e-mail accounts. Be ruthless like a battlefield surgeon. Our resources and time are limited and applying these simple principles a few times a day will help you keep your in-box clean.
- David Allen (2003). Getting things done: The art of stress-free productivity. New York: Penguin. [↩]
As affluence has spread across Australia and parts of the rest of the world, time seems to be the new frontier of poverty. When asking the average professional what is happening in their life, the word ‘busy’ is frequently uttered. If they seek your sympathy, the superlative neologism Time Poor is used.