 Press OKAY to delete and feel okay
The best laid plans can all be for nought when you can’t get away from that nagging, nagging Inbox.
Whether you’re back from holidays, or it’s just another Monday morning, chances are that any break from work can give your Inbox enough time to clog up with a mass of unread messages.
Where do they come from! you decry with exasperation. They seem to just come knocking like unwelcome visitors in the middle of the night.
Even when the company’s firewalls and filters are working at full throttle, chances are you’re still getting email you just don’t need in your life.
There’s the blog – times twenty – that you accidentally signed up to last June. There’s something from some restaurant that somehow got hold of your business card (they probably sent the waiters to check your handbag when you went to the loo!).
It all flies in the face of what you really want to get done that day. No matter how hard you try, just the knowledge of those unread messages buzzes around in your mind. Maybe, maybe you ponder: maybe there’s an important message in there – something that will change the entire game-plan for the day, for the week, for your life.
It’s unlikely, but you can’t move on until you’ve at least scanned the Inbox.
Indeed, best practice tells us that email is the number one cause of time drain in modern workplaces. Okay, best practice is one thing, but a quick Inbox scan couldn’t hurt – especially if it gives you peace-of-mind to stay focused on the important stuff.
Four Ds
Even if you’ve heard the four Ds before, a quick refresher will sharpen you’re Inbox clearing skills.
And if this is new to you, well … here’s a rare silver-bullet solution to increased efficiency and effectiveness.
The first D stands for Do. Sometimes that can be the best response to an email. Just get it done and move on. But when ‘sometimes’ becomes ‘always’, that’s when you need the next three Ds.
The second D is for Delay. Take this option when the email requires you to do something, but for good reason now’s just not the time. Good time management means knowing not just how to get things done efficiently, but as and when it best suits you.
And don’t feel that ‘delay’ necessarily means slacken off or procrastinate. It’s quite the opposite. It means that you’re staying focused on what you need to do now, and not letting someone else’s agenda dictate your own.
The best way to delay an email – if you’re using a program like Outlook – is to drag it to the Task folder, set start and end dates, check the reminder box if you want, save and move on.
The third D is for Delegate. Just because it has to be done, doesn’t mean that you have to do it.
And don’t shy away from hand-balling, like it’s some form of social disease. Forwarding an email to the right person isn’t about dumping work on their desk. It’s actually saying – and feel free to type this as you click the Forward button, ‘You’re the expert here, so I thought I’d pass it on to you rather than botch it up myself’.
And by delegating appropriately, you’re also giving yourself time to get done all the tasks that are actually yours.
Finally, and this is the best D of all: Delete. If you won’t do it now or later, and there’s no use in delegating it elsewhere, well what place does it have in your Inbox.
Which brings me to the final point. Imagine yourself a famous painter, and your Inbox is actually your easel. Treat your Inbox with respect. Give it the space it needs to be useful.
Or think of it this way. You’re digital Inbox is no different to your letter-box at home (remember that funny little box that used to hold interesting things just for you). Presuming that you’d never leave unopened mail in your letter box over night, then you owe it to yourself to clear out your Inbox as you go.
By the time you close your email program your Inbox should only ever have a handful of items in it – ideally none at all.
If you’ve currently got in excess of 100 items in it, then the above thought might frighten you. Give it time. But work on the four Ds, chipping away a few at a time, and within a week or so you’ll see that Inbox become a blank canvas ready for your best work to blossom. |
