Discussion Forum > E-mail Frequency
For processing my email, I find little and often works best. Otherwise it builds up into a serious backlog. "Little and often" for me means 5-8 times per day, but for you it might mean every 1-2 days. I guess it depends on how fast you develop resistance to processing your backlogs. :-) I hate backlogs so I try to make sure my inboxes don't turn into backlogs.
May 3, 2012 at 5:40 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
I believe mark did delete some long inactive users. Anyway since anyone can post, not just registered users, that's not really a problem.
Both my phone and computer beeps and keeps a notification when new email comes in. I don't necessarily immediately go and read those mails, but it helps me do those email little and often. Usually by the time I actually go and read the mail there would be about 4 or 5 for me to process.
Regarding how infrequent you can be, I usually expect my email recipients to at least *read* email once a day. Just like people used to collect snail mail once a day from their postboxes after the postman daily visit. I don't expect them to reply within a day though.
Both my phone and computer beeps and keeps a notification when new email comes in. I don't necessarily immediately go and read those mails, but it helps me do those email little and often. Usually by the time I actually go and read the mail there would be about 4 or 5 for me to process.
Regarding how infrequent you can be, I usually expect my email recipients to at least *read* email once a day. Just like people used to collect snail mail once a day from their postboxes after the postman daily visit. I don't expect them to reply within a day though.
May 3, 2012 at 8:57 |
sabre23t
sabre23t
I like doing it once, which I believe Mark advocates in his book due to the ability to batch e-mail together, rather than at many times throughout the day. Since I sort it by "from" field, I can quickly go through many e-mails from the same person/company and decide collectively what to do with it.
I spent maybe 90 minutes going through them yesterday and got through a few hundred, have close to 800 left.
That's interesting about READING them daily but not necessarily answering them. To me this causes diffusion of mental effort, thought, because you are going to be thinking about them throughout the day and the next day and your possible response. I have often been doing something different and then gone to the computer and e-mailed someone a response that I thought of which I did not want to forget, and I had received the e-mail during one of the preceding days.
I probably get 30-40 e-mails/day.
By the way, why do we have recapcha's every time? Couldn't it be set so that we can register for accounts or is it just because my old account was deleted and I have to register for a new one?
I spent maybe 90 minutes going through them yesterday and got through a few hundred, have close to 800 left.
That's interesting about READING them daily but not necessarily answering them. To me this causes diffusion of mental effort, thought, because you are going to be thinking about them throughout the day and the next day and your possible response. I have often been doing something different and then gone to the computer and e-mailed someone a response that I thought of which I did not want to forget, and I had received the e-mail during one of the preceding days.
I probably get 30-40 e-mails/day.
By the way, why do we have recapcha's every time? Couldn't it be set so that we can register for accounts or is it just because my old account was deleted and I have to register for a new one?
May 3, 2012 at 14:24 |
zeloc
zeloc
I used to check email 3 times a day - first thing, mid-day, last thing. I found it important to close outlook when I wasn't doing that to avoid distraction temptation. Or at least turn off the notifier pop-up.
May 3, 2012 at 18:18 |
michael
michael
I recommend processing email in batches. I don't recommend checking email all day long, or every time the mobile phone beeps, or every time the Outlook notification pops up. Personally, I've turned OFF all those little notifications. They drive me crazy. :-)
But still, I get about 1000 incoming emails every week, about 70% work, 30% personal. To avoid creating backlogs, I need to process in batches several times per day.
My manager used to have a Blackberry and it would vibrate about every 2 minutes with a new email, and HE'D ALWAYS CHECK IT!! It drove us all crazy. He was constantly distracted. I'm very glad he got rid of it!
But still, I get about 1000 incoming emails every week, about 70% work, 30% personal. To avoid creating backlogs, I need to process in batches several times per day.
My manager used to have a Blackberry and it would vibrate about every 2 minutes with a new email, and HE'D ALWAYS CHECK IT!! It drove us all crazy. He was constantly distracted. I'm very glad he got rid of it!
May 3, 2012 at 19:28 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Zeloc wrote:
<< That's interesting about READING them daily but not necessarily answering them. >>
Oh, that's a GTD habit that I find still useful. Separating PROCESSING from DOING. If DOING takes less than 2minutes, you can just DOIT immediately in processing step. Else you DEFERIT and take care of it separately in DOING step. Ref http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart.html .
So my email inbox normally would have a low number of unread messages, and some read messages deferred for further action when it surface in FV.
I automatically sort out CC, BCC, and MailingList emails into separate folders; for these messages READING might mean as little as reading the subject line, or the preview snippets of message body.
Messages directly to me (main two email addresses) are read more thoroughly and processed immediately if I'm between tasks; or when "email" tasks get selected.
I also get about 30 to 50 emails / day total.
<< That's interesting about READING them daily but not necessarily answering them. >>
Oh, that's a GTD habit that I find still useful. Separating PROCESSING from DOING. If DOING takes less than 2minutes, you can just DOIT immediately in processing step. Else you DEFERIT and take care of it separately in DOING step. Ref http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/gtd-workflow-chart.html .
So my email inbox normally would have a low number of unread messages, and some read messages deferred for further action when it surface in FV.
I automatically sort out CC, BCC, and MailingList emails into separate folders; for these messages READING might mean as little as reading the subject line, or the preview snippets of message body.
Messages directly to me (main two email addresses) are read more thoroughly and processed immediately if I'm between tasks; or when "email" tasks get selected.
I also get about 30 to 50 emails / day total.
May 4, 2012 at 5:55 |
sabre23t
sabre23t
One thing I do that has worked really well for me, is to pre-sort the email as it comes into your inbox with rules. You have to remember that not all information you receive in your inbox is of equal value. For me, the order of precedence is as follows. Your's may be different.
The first rule I have separates meetings from the rest of the emails into a folder called 1-Meetings. I did this because I found that meeting notices in Outlook tended to get drowned in the sea so it was hard to pick them out, and in some cases, I missed meetings because of it. Now I can clearly see the notices by themselves and I process them all at once.
The next priority rule is emails that are directly sent to me and me alone in the To: field with any words such as Action Required, or Action, or some variant of that. These emails are of value to me because somebody obviously wants me specifically to do something. I send these emails to a folder called 2-Action Required and I process these all in one shot.
My next rule then seperates emails that have me and other people in the To: field. Sometimes these have hidden actions in them because there are multiple people that they are addressed to. So I send these emails to a folder called 3-Me and Others
The next rule seperates the emails that I am in the cc: field. These emails usually I can just read quickly and file them because somebody just wants me to know something. I send these emails to a folder called 4-cc
The next rule is distribution lists. I am on a lot of different distribution lists and not always is the information of value so with this, I usually just skim. These emails get sent to a folder called 5-DL
Finally, i have a rule to label specific emails as low priority for things like news clips, newsletters, and other items that are just read when I get time sort of things.
These emails get sent to a folder called 6-Low Priority
Now, when I go to process emails, I start with folder number one and spend time getting my calendar in line with all the new notices. Then I move down the folders in order of prioritiy until they are all emptied out. I find that my email processing time has increased dramatically by doing this. Alot of your Folder 2-Action Required emails can go right into your Mark Forster system as a task. I flag those items in the Outlook inbox and unflag them when complete.
Hope this helps. If you would like further instructions, I'd be happy to help. It has worked really well for me and others at work have loved this technique as well. I developed it on my own based on what information I valued the most and then automated it so to speak.
The first rule I have separates meetings from the rest of the emails into a folder called 1-Meetings. I did this because I found that meeting notices in Outlook tended to get drowned in the sea so it was hard to pick them out, and in some cases, I missed meetings because of it. Now I can clearly see the notices by themselves and I process them all at once.
The next priority rule is emails that are directly sent to me and me alone in the To: field with any words such as Action Required, or Action, or some variant of that. These emails are of value to me because somebody obviously wants me specifically to do something. I send these emails to a folder called 2-Action Required and I process these all in one shot.
My next rule then seperates emails that have me and other people in the To: field. Sometimes these have hidden actions in them because there are multiple people that they are addressed to. So I send these emails to a folder called 3-Me and Others
The next rule seperates the emails that I am in the cc: field. These emails usually I can just read quickly and file them because somebody just wants me to know something. I send these emails to a folder called 4-cc
The next rule is distribution lists. I am on a lot of different distribution lists and not always is the information of value so with this, I usually just skim. These emails get sent to a folder called 5-DL
Finally, i have a rule to label specific emails as low priority for things like news clips, newsletters, and other items that are just read when I get time sort of things.
These emails get sent to a folder called 6-Low Priority
Now, when I go to process emails, I start with folder number one and spend time getting my calendar in line with all the new notices. Then I move down the folders in order of prioritiy until they are all emptied out. I find that my email processing time has increased dramatically by doing this. Alot of your Folder 2-Action Required emails can go right into your Mark Forster system as a task. I flag those items in the Outlook inbox and unflag them when complete.
Hope this helps. If you would like further instructions, I'd be happy to help. It has worked really well for me and others at work have loved this technique as well. I developed it on my own based on what information I valued the most and then automated it so to speak.
May 6, 2012 at 10:11 |
Matthew Sauer
Matthew Sauer
Oh I forgot to tell you how much time I spend on doing emails. I try to process each email in three minutes or less. Read that in a book somewhere along the line, and have always tried to stick to it. If it can't be done in three minutes or less, I drag it to my Action Required folder so I can make a task out of it. I find most things I can get thru pretty quickly.
But as far as processing the folders, I try to just process one folder at a time for no more than 20 minutes and then do something else. Once I come back I either continue where I left off in the current folder and then move to the next folder in the set for another 20 minutes and keep repeating the cycle until all the folders are processed. Sort of that little bit and often philosophy Mark talks about.
One thing you could do, is put each folder name in your Auto Focus or FV system, and make a task out of it to process those folders and then let your Auto Focus rules handle when you process the task based on what you feel needs to be done next in your list of tasks. I do that too.
Just some thoughts.
But as far as processing the folders, I try to just process one folder at a time for no more than 20 minutes and then do something else. Once I come back I either continue where I left off in the current folder and then move to the next folder in the set for another 20 minutes and keep repeating the cycle until all the folders are processed. Sort of that little bit and often philosophy Mark talks about.
One thing you could do, is put each folder name in your Auto Focus or FV system, and make a task out of it to process those folders and then let your Auto Focus rules handle when you process the task based on what you feel needs to be done next in your list of tasks. I do that too.
Just some thoughts.
May 6, 2012 at 10:23 |
Matthew Sauer
Matthew Sauer
Matthew, thanks for these ...
1-Meetings
2-Action Required [Me only]
3-Me and Others
4-cc
5-DL
6-Low Priority [BCC? Old address?]
... currently I've 3 outlook rules that falls under your "6-Low Priority". They reduce my inbox by half, so for now I don't need more rules to segregate my email inbox further. But I'll keep in mind your rules for the future.
1-Meetings
2-Action Required [Me only]
3-Me and Others
4-cc
5-DL
6-Low Priority [BCC? Old address?]
... currently I've 3 outlook rules that falls under your "6-Low Priority". They reduce my inbox by half, so for now I don't need more rules to segregate my email inbox further. But I'll keep in mind your rules for the future.
May 6, 2012 at 11:03 |
sabre23t
sabre23t
I'm with Michael on this one, three times a work day except I am trying a lifehacker tweak which says tackle the most important/critical thing for an hour first.
So I check my work email addresses at 0900 (0800 + 1 hour), 1200 and 1500.
My oldest email address for work has the following statement below my signature:
"NB: email is not set to retrieve continuously, call/SMS/whatsapp if very urgent"
Yes, I send my email 'manually' so as not to be disturbed by the Inbox messages. All inbound emails are copied to a similarly named gmail address which I can check on my smartphone or iPad when out and about.
I also have a new work email address with my new main client, so may have to bow to that client's policy,however at least I can restrict this email address to persons directly related to this client's projects. Other clients can use my oldest work email address.
I also have a personal gmail address for many web sites, and non-work dross.
The truth is, when out and about, I do not check the two gmail addresses very often, only if I am expecting something important, otherwise I wait till I have some time to fill somewhere eg while waiting at reception.
So I check my work email addresses at 0900 (0800 + 1 hour), 1200 and 1500.
My oldest email address for work has the following statement below my signature:
"NB: email is not set to retrieve continuously, call/SMS/whatsapp if very urgent"
Yes, I send my email 'manually' so as not to be disturbed by the Inbox messages. All inbound emails are copied to a similarly named gmail address which I can check on my smartphone or iPad when out and about.
I also have a new work email address with my new main client, so may have to bow to that client's policy,however at least I can restrict this email address to persons directly related to this client's projects. Other clients can use my oldest work email address.
I also have a personal gmail address for many web sites, and non-work dross.
The truth is, when out and about, I do not check the two gmail addresses very often, only if I am expecting something important, otherwise I wait till I have some time to fill somewhere eg while waiting at reception.
May 7, 2012 at 14:16 |
Roger J
Roger J
Is this reasonable? I think I would be way more productive but I am a bit concerned with how I might be perceived and the off-chance that I get something that could be time-sensitive although I can't really think of a situation when that has happened recently.
BTW, it looks like the forum format has changed, it won't accept my old username/password?