Finally, to dispel the illusion and to actually respond to all incoming email, I took control of my inbox by making one simple decision. That decision is simply to check my email just twice a day, once in the morning and again in the evening. And now I am able to consistently meet a 24-hour response time to emails during weekdays.
Implementing the decision required just a few major behavior changes:
- Schedule 90 mins per session to handle email. Time not used in a session can be reallocated to other activities.
- Spend no more than 6 mins responding to an email. If more time is required, flag the email for follow-up. As a courtesy, after flagging an email for follow-up, I generally reply to the sender to let him or her know that I have received the email and need more time to craft a full response.
- Once read or flagged, either move the email into another folder or delete it.
The point of this change was to increase productivity by reducing stress, anxiety and workplace distractions from two things: constantly switching into and out of Outlook, and worrying about unread emails.
If you try this or are already doing something similar, have you been able to maintain inbox zero? Or does your job demand a different way to handle email? While I am far from completing all of my tasks on a day-to-day basis, I take comfort in knowing that I can at least respond to all emails that come my way. After all, communication is a key component of everyone's work.
Tip: To follow through with eliminating email distractions, turn off email notifications in Outlook, on your tablet and on your smartphone.
Tip: The articles below may provide additional perspectives on handling email:
