The first productivity - killing topic we will talk about is Email

 

Even though I can't see or hear you I imagine there's a big groan when we talk about email. I get 120-140 emails a day. If you don't have a system for email it will overwhelm you and break your spirit. I handle email with a number of tactics.

First, I make an absolute commitment to myself to not continuously process (i.e. read, respond and react) email throughout the day. Notice I said process and not "check." I process email three times a day. I come in a few minutes early just to do this, uninterrupted, in the morning. Then I process it right after lunch and then again at the end of the day. I use a Blackberry with email access to check for urgent messages and changed or cancelled meetings and prune my messages along the way. If there's something that's absolutely critical, I'll address it but I am careful to not fall into the trap of falling into constant email fire drills. Each processing session takes approximately 15 minutes, and I try to limit my email work to less than an hour a day.

Here's the way I go about processing my email.

First, I make a commitment that I'm going to get through it as quickly as I can

Then I start scouring the messages very rapidly, making split second decisions.

• If an email is spam or not even close to being relevant or important instantly I delete it.
• If it's an email where I can respond quickly I will send a very short response that usually takes less than five seconds. My responses tend to be just a few words like "Great we'll talk about it at the meeting," or "Approved." The idea is to not waste time on these emails.
• If it is an email that is very long that I need to read completely but is not urgent I put it in a folder called "Read Later" (I also have rules set up that automatically put newsletters, industry publications, etc. in this folder). Note: For these emails I put in one to two dedicated hours on my calendar once a week for reading.
• If it's an email that's going to require a long response and a lot of thinking, I turn it into an Outlook Task so that it shows up on my To Do list and I can prioritize it with everything else that I need to do.

Note: In Outlook if you right-click and drag an email to the bottom left hand corner where it says "Tasks" you can turn it into a task with the actual email attached and put it on your priority list. If you use this method you can get through your incoming email very quickly and get onto creating an actual priority list and working from there (more on prioritizing your To Do list later in the book).

The second tactic for email is to separate your work and your personal email

Do your personal email on your own time and use a different email address. Make your commitment that when you do your work email you are going to do it as quickly and efficiently as you possibly can. Take your personal email offline for after hours and weekends.