Getting Things Done Part 3: Email Management

This is part three in the Getting Things Done series. You should also read GTD: 43 Folders, GTD Part One: The Basics and GTD Part Two: Software.

Is your inbox more of a burden than a useful tool? Up until a few months ago I would just let the emails sit in there indefinitely, unorganized. It made it very difficult to stay on top of things and it was stressful to see all that information on my most-looked-at screen. It wasn’t until I decided to adopt a Getting Things Done system that I really felt like I had control of my inbox.

When you break it down to the basics, every message in your inbox is one of four types:

1. Immediately Actionable
2. Eventually Actionable
3. Informational
4. Useless

It might seem a bit oversimplified, but if you consider it for a few moments you will realize that it really is that simple. The key to making this system work is to immediately identify the type of message and get it out of your inbox. I leave my inbox open all the time, but some people find it easier to set aside a few blocks of time during the day to deal with messages. Whichever way you go, you will find that identifying message types becomes second nature and the vast majority of messages that you get can either be filed away or deleted.

A message lands in your inbox. Treat it like a hot potato. You need to get this message checked into your system as soon as possible. Here is a good litmus for deciding which type of message you are dealing with.

Immediately Actionable

If the message involves an action that can be done in less than two minutes, get it done. In my 9 to 5 I use a help desk as my to-do list, but I still sometimes get normal “Can I ask you a question?” emails. If I can answer the question quickly via phone or email then there is no reason not to do so immediately. Just get it done. I am the business systems support for a couple of departments and over my two years at the company I have really gotten to know my individual coworkers’ communication styles. This is important because it helps me decide if an item is immediately actionable or if it might be something I need to put a bit more legwork into.

For instance, I know that Rita does not communicate or absorb information very well in writing. She might send me a question via email, but if I want to get at precisely what the problem is then I am going to need to make voice-to-voice contact. Rita is also not so good with directions over the phone. So if her question is software-related and involves more than two steps I know that I ought to save us both the time and just pop over to her desk. If I did not have a handle on different people’s learning styles then I could end up trying to call a written communicator or email the techno-phobe directions on clearing her cookies. All this does is waste our time and cause irritation and confusion.

Eventually Actionable
If you are in the middle of something – which we always are all the time – and the new task in your inbox is going to take longer than two minutes to complete, you need to introduce it into your system. This way you can stay on task and it won’t fall through the cracks. I place the email in my Eventually Actionable folder, add it to my task list, prioritized and, if there is any sort of deadline involved then I add a reminder to my calendar. This takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in my organization and productivity.

Informational

Informational emails are those messages that don’t require any action, but still need to be saved for later reference. There are several ways you can deal with these messages. You can save them in a folder in your email client, file them on your PC somewhere or print out a paper copy and put it in your filing system. Informational emails can almost always be dealt with immediately because it takes only a few moments to identify where they should go and get them there.

I actually have several folders set up in my email client for reference-type emails. I have folders for different types of software issue resolutions, certain reports that are created on some sort of regular basis and departmental emails. With this in place I can quickly move the message out of my inbox and into its final resting place. You may find that one catch-all folder for informational messages works for you. Just remember that the key with this is to be sure you know what each folder is for so messages can be filed quickly. If you have a ton of folders with cryptic labels then you are going to do more harm than good to your productivity.

Useless

The forward from Suzy with the video of the cat chasing his tail was very cute, but it was four minutes you will never get back. Now I’m not saying that you have to be on task every moment of every day, I would just suggest that you create a folder for items that you might want to save but are either not critical or not work-related. Pointless forwards are not nearly as prevalent as they were a decade ago (I can’t tell you how many times I got that damn “We Are the Children of the 80s” mile-long forward when I was in college), but there are still folks who can’t seem to help themselves.

The other type of useless email is just plain trash. Maybe you signed up for an email list to get some swag at a conference or your a primary point of contact and the software provider sends updates for products you don’t even own. In any case, there are always going to be some (perhaps many) emails that you can delete and forget. These message are usually easily identifiable.

At first, it might seem as though you are adding another step by stopping to figure out what category each email falls in. In the long run, though, you will only have to deal with each message twice: once to organize it and once to complete any action it requires. If you let it sit in your inbox until you get around to doing it, you will look at it many times. There’s the “Oh, I forgot about that message…what was it about again?” and the “Wait, what report? Oh, right, I have that information somewhere.” and many more times during the day when that message will take up your time and attention. If you categorize it right when you get it and put it in your system, then it is right where it needs to be for when you need it again. And not before.

It may take you a couple weeks or a month for this process to feel comfortable. If you’re like me, you’re used to just letting all those message sit there. There’s a sense of busy-ness that comes with a full inbox. You are important and needed. Even you aren’t aware of thinking that way, chances are the thoughts are sitting there in your subconscious. Getting used to dealing with things as they arrive and having a set list of what is coming next feels a bit strange at first. But I promise you will soon settle in and find that Getting Things Done is absolutely the way to go.