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November 25, 2008
Plowing through email
My email Inbox is at zero at least once a day. It takes me about 60-90 minutes of processing time each day to plow through it.
When I tell people that, they run a few critical assumptions on me:
- She doesn't work at my company
- That must be ALL she does all day long
- She can't really be reading any of it
- She must get a lot of spam
- She must not get a lot of email
- She must not be very busy
Of course, I'm not in your world, your job, your Inbox. But how about considering this instead: I have a seamless process for handling it with the least amount of effort as possible. I've written about that process in a couple of previous articles, if you're interested:
Becoming the master of your email Inbox
Digging out from an email landfill
It doesn't matter if you get 10 emails a day or 800. I've coached people on both ends of the spectrum, and I'll tell you, stress can show up however many you get. You'll never plow through to the Holy Grail of Inbox Zero unless you give yourself a clear process (the GTD 4D's works wonders) and the time (most people need about an hour a day just for their own processing time.)
Posted by Kelly at November 25, 2008 08:12 AM
Comments
How true! Thanks, Kelly, for the reminder - one that I know from experience is true. I, too, am at zero and am at the end of every day, despite the fairly rigorous schedule I maintain.
By the way, I enjoyed you and John on the @Home podcast this week on a twelve hour drive I took to New Brunswick, Canada. Great to see it practically lived out in your lives. My wife and I are working to make it seamless in our lives, too.
Dean
Posted by: Anonymous at November 26, 2008 03:13 PM
Kelly
Even though a few people at the office have read some GTD material it's surprising how difficult it is to protect processing time in the morning.
I'm new to GTD having just attended your seminar in Toronto and I wanted to thank you for writing this blog. I've never felt better after getting my 8000 email inbox down to zero.
Posted by: Rob M at November 26, 2008 05:46 PM
I agree, I can accomplish it at least once a day. I have gotten my average time down to 45 minutes as well.
Posted by: Brian Darnell at November 27, 2008 01:07 AM
Isn't it amazing that the best most of us can manage is about 1 hour per day for processing email? (Yep - I'm in this boat, too.) If somebody had asked us 10 years ago if we'd like to have this new communications tool that consumed just one hour per day, I think most of us would have answered the same way: "NO THANKS!" Yet, few of us are in a position to give up email. While 45 minutes or an hour a day is an accomplishment, I would pay money to get it down to 15 minutes a day!
Posted by: Matt Hyatt at December 1, 2008 05:06 PM
I have >60,000 email messages in my inbox at the moment. I am using a search engine in order to find the right email. On January 1, 2009, I will start to reduce the inbox to zero at the end of every day...
Posted by: Martin Lindeskog at December 15, 2008 02:28 PM
I keep a pretty trim email box but your tips added the final organization I was looking for. Now I just need to stay disciplined and continue to fight the good fight :)
Thanks!!
Posted by: Tamon Yanagimoto at December 30, 2008 08:57 AM
I followed the directions for creating labels and filters to have my emails organized, and as far as I can tell - my labels and filters look like the ones in the examples - but my emails go to the inbox and not the the labels. Can someone provide some thoughts on this issue - Thanks!
Posted by: rose at January 2, 2009 03:06 PM
Hi Rose,
I'm happy to help, but what are you referring to? The Gmail article by chance?
If not that article, even creating the @Action and @Waiting For folders requires you to process/decide each email when it lands in the Inbox. I do NOT advocate having those emails go into the Action and Waiting for folders automatically, without you having had a chance to decide your next action.
But that may not be at all what you are having a challenge with....so I need more info.
Cheers,
Kelly
Posted by: Kelly at January 5, 2009 01:53 PM
