As I’ve been transitioning from one email system at my old institution to another at the new–to say nothing of doing my daily juggle of my personal email accounts–I’ve been reflecting on some good advice I’ve read in the past about handling email effectively.
- Perhaps the phrase that has most stuck in my head about email is to just “touch it once,” something that Paul English writes about. I’m not quite there yet, but endeavoring to only read each email once has changed how I work.
- Of course, the end product of one-touch email is that you’ll end up with the state of Nirvana known as “Inbox Zero.” Merlin Mann’s tips for email–as well as just getting your stuff done–at his 43 Folders should be required reading for every Prof. Hacker (provided you’ve finished what matters most already).
How do you handle email effectively?
[Image by flickr user will-lion. (CC-licensed)]
Comments
1. Karen Hellekson - August 14, 2009 at 07:30 pm
I have been questing for a perfect e-mail/calendaring organization system, and I finally have figured out a system that works for me. I thus can't resist sharing it. I'm an inveterate Lifehacker reader, and my ideal e-mail organization system came from their posts. All my e-mail addresses flow into Gmail, where I filter like crazy so that only actual e-mail I need to deal with lands in my inbox.
I have four main folders: _Follow-up, _Hold (awaiting response), _Long-term pend, and _Paid work. When something enters my inbox, I use the 2-minute rule. I handle it right then and there if it would take 2 minutes or less. If it will take longer, I file it in _Follow-up. All my freelance jobs go in _Paid work. _Long-term pend is for things with quite long due dates: a book review due in 3 months, for example. Items go in _Hold when I need to take action, but someone has to get back to me first. With this strategy, I am usually at INBOX ZERO.
Related to this are my five (FIVE) Google Calendars. Two of these are project specific, so I won't detail them. One, the default calendar that I sync to my handheld, is full of due dates: if I have to be in a particular place at a particular time, it goes in that calendar. The other two are recurring Annual Reminders (car tag renewal! quarterly tax due dates! people's birthdays!) and Tickler Reminders (follow up on that abstract submission! check the dates of that conference! write that blog entry! change out your contact lenses!).
Depending on the task, I ask Google Calendar to shoot me an e-mail to remind me to do something. These e-mails are filtered into my _Follow-up folder and thus are immediately filed. The key is to free up the brain to focus on specific tasks, and to automate all the remembering to something that can do it better: the computer.
2. Laura - August 17, 2009 at 04:00 pm
I skim my subject lines first thing in the morning and then I read the impotant messages, responding as necessary. Then I select the remaining unread messages, scanning again so I don't miss anything and I click delete.
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