Get Everything Done

I have a "Process Email" task, but I'm not sure how to accomplish it. Thing is I have 1000s of old emails, and I don't know that I want to process them all. Maybe I'll just file those away and ignore them as "the old system". Now it's time for a new system where email stops cluttering and starts being clear.

Suggestions?

This is exactly what Mark proposes in his blog post "Backlog Method". Put all old mails in a backlog folder and set up a new system for new mails. Personally, I use the "trusted trio" method by Gina Trapani, which means I have only three folders beside my Inbox: Archive, FollowUp and WaitingFor.

If you use this setup, you could enter different mail related tasks into your AF list, for example "Email Inbox", "Email FollowUp" and "Email WaitingFor".

If you work on your inbox, you simply move all mails into one of the three folders or delete them. The goal is simply to empty the inbox. Mails you need to do something about go into FollowUp, mails that remind you of something you're waiting for (shipments, delegations etc.) go into WaitingFor. Mails you want to keep for Reference go into Archive. Delete the rest.

If you get to the FollowUp task, you go into your FollowUp folder and do stuff attached to the emails there. Move those that are done into Archive or delete them.

If you get to the WaitingFor task, simply go to your WaitingFor folder and check if there are any reminders that became unnecessary. Delete those or move to Archive.

An alternative to having a "Email FollowUp" task would be to have indivual tasks in your AF list, with "(email)" behind them or something. So you could get to these tasks in AF fashion and you knew that the corresponding mail is in the FollowUp folder.

So, yeah, that's my system. Just for input. ^_^

Oh, and of course as long as you have the backlog, you should also have a "work on email backlog" task in AF.

Hi Andreas
I got even lazier. I regard my Inbox task as decide and do. Everything in my inbox needs a mental or physical action. I flag the follow ups. The rest is archived or deleted. I found this method helps me to prevent the inclination to skip over the more difficult email actions. There are there front and center asking "Make a decision and finish me!" The dates and subject help me to decide the order if my time is limited. If not, it's there to be done!" (Yes, when I'm stubbornly lazy, my timer sits next to my computer to help me get it done "enough to satisfy today's needs. Sometimes, it launches me to complete the lot. Plus, I don't need to go to a separate folder to monitor the necessary pending items. If the time is right to prod someone, the email is right there. I don't have to get my mind in a separate groove to be willing to click a different folder. The actions beckoning me are all right there. Even my reminders I've set... I'm good to go....
learning as I go
learning as I go
learning as I go

oops
I use follow up as others use pending.....IOW chase someone else's tail.

Two words: Inbox Zero.

See Merlin's video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9UjeTMb3Yk

It's a bit long, but worth it. I watch it again whenever my Inbox gets longer than a screenful.

Hi Ubi
I simply prefer to do a good portion of the work then and there most of the time. It's planned into my routine. My ENTIRE inbox is rarely more than two pages and that includes all my follow up/ pending. I have NO other folder with action/decisions hidden from my view. It makes the pruning process quicker and more merciless.... plus it forces me to address the ones I'm resistant to. Different strokes....
learning as I go

p.s.
I should clarify that no groups mailings, rss feeds, and very little social chatting, etc go to my inbox. It's almost entirely business related. I like to keep the two totally separate. If I had the inclination to have these things sent to me, I'd definitely have a separate inbox for that. My inbox is mostly necessary work to be done.
learning as I go

Hi Alan,

Given where you are it's probably worth just ignoring them and starting a new system with what comes in.

I have 4 email folders: Inbox, Actions, Reference, Trash.

Inbox that contains new things. I tend to process my Inbox 2 or 3 times a day so that I remain responsive. The rest of the time I ignore email. I process it to completion so that its empty when I'm done. At that point all the emails have either end up in one of my other 3 folders by the following rules:

If an email requires no action I read it and either move it to Reference (if I may need it at some point) or Trash.
If the email needs action and can be responded to right away (usually less than 2 minutes, but if I have a large chunk of time I may deal with longer tasks immediately) I do it and either Delete it or Move it to Reference.
If the email represents a task needing action that is longer, I move it to the Actions folder and enter an item on my AF list to follow up.

Occassionally my inbox gets cluttered because I haven't had time to process it and I start get a bit anxious about it. In that case I enter an "InZ" task meaning get to Inbox Zero.

Hello Alan,
You are probably safe to ignore most of the old emails as most correspondents would chase up anything important that went unanswered? Though I guess that depends on your business and who your correspondents are.

For keeping up to date, I have found the DIT approach a real help, and follow this outside of AF. I do keep an eye on incoming emails during the day in case of anything urgent, but if not I leave them to do tomorrow. Each morning I move those received yesterday into a separate folder 'yesterday's emails' and deal with them in a number of sessions during the day, aiming to empty the folder by the end of the day. I flag those which need monitoring for follow up in future and file those I need to keep, with my reply, in one of my many folders for the various topics I deal with.

This has been the biggest single benefit to managing my time (and wellbeing) since I've adopted this as it gives a sense of control and achievement (the benefits of a 'closed list') - you get an overview of what needs to be tackled and also get to empty the folder at least once a day, and often the additional time for the issue or query to percolate means you're more effective at dealing with it the next day. Much better in my view than the continual distraction of trying to deal with everything as it comes in to keep the inbox empty.

Good luck with whatever system you adopt.

I conquered my email backlog in the days of DIT, but AF, AF2 and then AF3 had it building up again. AF4 has been restoriing email heaven.

I use a variant of AF4 on the emails. To do this, send yourself an email with subject line "================". This will show up in your inbox as a dividing line, anything above treat as an open list, and below as a closed list. Apply standard AF4 rules, starting at the oldest item. When the closed list is dealt with, send another such email to yourself and delete the first. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Laurence, what ingenuity!

I try to do the DIT approach as Jane explains, but soon fall behind with too much backlog. So glad this thread has come up again to refresh my enthusiasm to implement a new system.

Grateful for all the suggestions in this thread, but love the way you have come up with this simple way of integrating AF4 into such a sticky area.

Have already sent myself the email and looking forward (??!!) to attempting to get rid of the stickiness with the new wash, rinse, repeat cycle as soon as I've had breakfast.
Thanks again.

Oops. Forgot to mention how I appreciate the aesthetics of Laurence's simple tip.

If you have MS Outlook, the best way I have found is to use three folders: Inbox, Process, and Reference. The inbox is grouped by sender so I can scan quickly for responses I am waiting for, and I have a couple of search folders set up ("important" and "key people"). the Process folder is grouped by conversation.

When I attack a batch of mail, I move the whole inbox to the process folder. This is not quite so elegant as Lawrence's solution, but it does allow me to play with the groupings, whichis key to this method. Then I look at the last message in each conversation and respond or drag it to the task list if a response will take more than a minute or so.

When I get to the bottom of the process folder, I move the whole folder to the reference folder.

Incidentally, grouping the backlog by conversation may make a dramatic difference to the number of mails you need to look at.

+1, Laurence's Tip seems really great, I just sent the "========" email to myself to try it.

We really get productive ideas exchanges here. Great great forum.

Great tip laurence - sent the ====== email to myself now have a closed list of 214 emails.....! Unfortunately this does not include the emails that go into their own folders.....

I've tried to completely deal with each email the first time I view it, but that approach just results in a backlog building up. So now I'm experimenting with an AF4 approach to my email. This means I have five folders - Inbox, Closed List, Open List, Archive, Waiting For.

In AF I have a reminder to "clear email inbox" - the idea is to completely clear this every time I do this task. This means there are five possible actions to each email the first time I view them:
1. deal with the email completely if it is a simple "decide & respond" type
2. delete it
3. transfer to archive if it might be useful as reference or a record
4. transfer it to Waiting For
5. transfer it to the Open List, but I have to send a quick response that says I've got the email and it's on my list ( a side note here is the question of what to do with something that has a real deadline - not sure about that at the moment, I guess I'll write a specific AF entry)

I have another AF entry to "process emails". Here I intend to follow the AF4 rules. Any Closed List item that I've worked on that has more to do gets moved to the Open List. Any Open List item that has more to do stays on the Open List. When the Closed List is empty I move all the Open List items to the Closed List.

I think the dismissal rules are still valid - if I find that I'm resisting dismissing an email then I'll need to actually decide why and what needs to be done, probably at that point I'll write a specific AF entry for the email.

I never do more than one pass of the "Process" folder. Then the whole thing goes into the reference file. If I'm unsure how to deal with a mail, it goes straight to the main AF list.

An update for those that are interested. I've been following the email process I mentioned before now for just over a week. I'm finding that I'm more in control of my email and there is a lot less stress involved. My email is separated between two businesses, personal and Scouts.

Current stats are:
Inboxes empty!! Been this way every day since I started.
Closed Lists - Bus 1 empty; Bus 2 has 18 emails, Personal has 4 emails, Scouts has 1 email
Open Lists - Bus 1 has 54 emails, Bus 2 has 3 emails, Personal has 185 emails, Scouts has 21 emails
Waiting For - 23 emails

Some observations: I've been ignoring the Personal side to reduce the backlog on the businesses. I'm about to move all the Bus 1 Open List to Closed. I'm motivated to clear the Closed Lists for Personal and Scouts which will mean I can shift their Open Lists to Closed as well. Waiting For probably needs some housekeeping, it's most likely got stuff that I've received now.

Overall this is proving to be the most effective method I've ever employed. I'll check in on this again in a week or so if it is interesting to any of you.

Your progress sounds good. 185 personal emails in a week doesn't sound good though. You ought to figure out how to cut that volume down. (I assume it's 185 new, because I assume you started by moving old emails to the closed list, so these must all be new.)

Me, I'm putting all emails more than a couple weeks old into an archive, and I don't plan to process them. Current email I'm putting into a temporary closed list with a Process Closed Emails task in OneNote. All future emails I will process as follows:

1) "Process email" is an AF4 task. I expect to get to it daily.
2) Follow your decision process on each.
3) Things that require email action are done immediately if possible. Otherwise they go into an email action box _and_ a OneNote task page.
4) Things that trigger non-email actions go into my tasks, and get deleted from email.