How to overcome email overwhelm
Controlling your Inbox so it doesn’t control you
Co-written with Andrew Marshman
Does this sound familiar: You return from vacation, refreshed and full of energy from your adventures. It’s the first day back at work, and you’re ready, you’ve decided that this time you’ll keep that holiday buzz going! You sit at your desk, turn on the computer, open up your emails… and your heart sinks and all the good intentions evaporate in an instant... There are hundreds of emails waiting for you! It’s the equivalent of being buried under hundreds of letters, advertisements and bills all coming through your letterbox at once!
No wonder we usually fall right back into the pattern of stress, feeling demoralised and unmotivated if that’s how we start off. What if it didn’t need to be this way? What if instead of being overwhelmed by hundreds of unread emails you could come back to just dozens of emails in your inbox, all pre-categorised and sorted for you?
There are several things can you do to tame your inbox and achieve that amazing and seemingly out-of-reach Zero Inbox. Here are our top tips to make your inbox manageable:
Tip 1: Separate organising your emails from taking action on them
With snail mail you probably wouldn’t pick up the first takeaway menu, go to the bin to throw it away, then open a bill, open up online banking on your device and pay the bill, then throw away another takeaway menu, then throw away a flyer from a gardener offering his services, then stop to read a postcard from a friend, then open another bill, go back into online banking,… you get the idea. Instead, you would probably first group all your post, then throw away everything that’s advertising you’re not interested in and then take a look at what is left so you can decide how and when to take action. To tame your inbox, try out using the same approach to handling your emails: sort your emails first and then engage with them. Most of this can be done very efficiently via automated rules, which means you first have to ‘train’ your inbox.
Tip 2: Train your Inbox
This step will take some time if you have thousands of ‘unread’ emails sitting in your inbox, but it is worth the initial time investment and you can do this in stages. Set up rules to train your inbox to categorise your mail for you and filter it into buckets. You might have heard of the method using the 4 Ds: do, defer, delegate, and delete. For each email decide which category it falls into:
Junk
You can delete these right away so they never even show up in your inbox. Look through the emails currently in your inbox and set up rules for anything you don’t really need or want to be deleted automatically in future, for example based on sender or other appropriate criteria.
Information only
You can think of this as the “5th D” and deposit these types of emails in a folder where you can easily find them again if you want them, but they do not clutter your inbox. Again, go through your inbox and set up rules for this to happen automatically based on appropriate criteria.
Action required
These are emails that will require a response or an action from you, and you will need to decide whether an email falls into the do, defer, or delegate category. They are the emails you need to personally handle and probably can’t easily automate, so it is best to set aside and schedule a set time to deal with them. Decide on, schedule, and stick to a dedicated time for categorising and dealing with these emails, bearing a few rules in mind in mind:
Keep the first 1-2 hours of work email-free. If you check your emails first it might seem productive but you are in fact setting yourself up to be reactive and just respond to things that are required of you, rather than proactively planning and prioritising tasks based on what is most relevant or urgent for you.
Stick to your chosen email-handling windows. It can be very tempting to react as soon as an email comes in, especially if it seems to be something you can respond to right away and get off your desk. However, bear in mind that multitasking like that is not something our brains are able to do, we just switch really quickly between different tasks. This is incredibly distracting and research shows that it takes us a long time to get back on task after an interruption, and during that time we are significantly less focussed and productive. Try single-tasking instead and only check your emails during the dedicated times you scheduled.
Do not leave anything in your inbox. Make a decision for how to handle every single email and set up new automated rules where possible so that less and less emails actually hit your inbox to begin with. If you have thousands of unread emails this will of course take time and you can’t do it in one sitting. If this is the case for you, set aside 10-15 minutes to work through however many emails you can in that time and set up rules wherever possible.
Tip 3: Be clear about how and when to take action
Now let’s take a closer look at what do with those emails that are left over after all the rules filtered out most of the noise. For these emails you will need to decide if they are something you need to do, need to defer, or can delegate.
Do
These are emails that you need to take some kind of action on yourself. If it is something easy that you can address in 2 minutes or less, go ahead and handle it immediately. If it takes longer or you need something else in order to handle it, your action will be to add it to a to-do list and group it with the emails you decide to defer.
Defer
If you can’t handle an email immediately and within 2 minutes, schedule dealing with it during an appropriate block of time later. Ask yourself when the most appropriate time would be, and what other tasks it would logically go with. For example, if you have received an invoice you can deal with it during a time that you have scheduled and set aside for paying invoices and working on finance issues.
Delegate
When deciding whether you can delegate something, think about how to best delegate. Ask yourself: What precisely is it that I am delegating? Who would be the most suitable person to delegate this to? What deadline will I need to give them to complete this? What might they need from me in order to work on this? Also consider how you will let them know that you are delegating something to them – will you inform them in a meeting, in a call, via email, or maybe in person?
Do your best to get rid of any ‘loose ends’ so there is no risk of overwhelm: develop a system that will help and remind you so that you do not personally need to track or follow up on emails or tasks that you have delegated or need to take action on yourself. You could for example do this by creating follow-up folders for your emails and setting up rules that automatically nudge you after a set time.
Bonus Tip: Others can help keep your inbox tidy
You can use these tips and do a lot by yourself to reduce the mountain of unread emails in your inbox. And you can go even further with the help of others, so try to educate others on things like good email etiquette. For example, this could look like reminding others when it is appropriate to put people in the addressee line and when they should be put in cc instead (i.e. when they are included to stay informed but have no action to take on the email themselves). This will allow you to set a rule for all emails that you are not directly addressed to you to be handled as less urgent so you can focus on those that you need to take action on personally first. Think about email etiquette and how it might help everyone to keep their inboxes manageable.
Often it is also helpful to let others know what to expect from you, for example on things like when you will be attending to your emails or when they can expect a response by. Most emails do not require an immediate response and it is fine to leave them for a couple of hours. For anything that is more urgent email might not be the best way of communicating in any case and it would be best to consider what a more appropriate method of communication might be. A good rule of thumb would be:
For more in-depth communication that includes facts and detailed information,
For anything that does not require attention or action in the next several hours.
Instant Messaging
For issues that require a response or action quite soon but are not urgent
Call
For anything urgent that requires immediate attention and/or action
Do your best to move away from using email for everything and choose other, more appropriate communication methods based on how complex, immediate or urgent the issue is. Over time and with your support others you work with will hopefully start to do the same, which will help to not only keep your own inbox more tidy but also theirs!
BEYOND THE BLOG
If you want to overcome the overwhelm, achieve that fabled Zero-Inbox, gain some traction on all your to-dos and establish a work-life balance that suits you I’d like to help. Get in touch and book a complimentary, no-obligation 30-minute Discovery Call with me.
Andrew is a certified Coach, accredited DISC Practitioner as well as a dance teacher and full-time project manager. In order to be effective in his various roles, Andrew has had to master many facets of personal organisation and coaching and is passionate about sharing those skills with other busy people so they can develop positive habits, behaviours and mindsets to be their best selves in all areas of life. Visit Andrew’s website to learn more about how he can help you be more organised and productive.
