I'm always on the prowl for tips that can free up hours from my work week so that I can either focus on higher value work activities or better yet ....get me get out of the office sooner so that I can enjoy other aspects of my life. This type of focus is central to designing a lifestyle that allows you to squeeze more experiences out of life!!!! To achieve this you need to look for opportunities to reduce your hours spent on 'lower value' activities and shift these 'new found' hours to tasks that are more aligned to your desired lifestyle. When I looked at my work week a few years back after reading Tim Ferris' Four Hour Work Week
, I realized that my email was simply OUT OF CONTROL and because I wasn't managing it properly I was spending way to much time on it. I started exploring different email management tricks and after exploring a few options I finally discovered a simple and effective email management approach that freed up about 2-3 hours per week for me. I wanted to share my experience with you.
Background
I manage four email accounts (I can't get away from that for a number of reasons) and I receive between 85 and 135 emails on any given day. I don't say this to impress people because contrary to popular belief I don't believe that email volume correlates with your importance, position, power, or salary. I share this statistic with you to simply provide some context around how significant my email challenge was. You may receive more email or you may receive less email, but chances are you feel the same way I felt ---I was BURIED IN EMAIL and no matter how hard I tried I always seemed to BE BEHIND and had a CLUTTERED Inbox. The clutter was getting to me so much that I was dedicating more and more time to managing my email and less time doing more important things. I needed a solution and giving up email altogether in this day and age wasn't an option; rather I needed help ... help in a FAST way. That's when I discovered Gina Trapani's article on Lifehacker.com called Empty Your Inbox With The Trusted Trio. The simple 'action oriented' folder structure called the "Trusted Trio" worked wonders for me.
The Folders
The three folders referenced in the Trusted Trio article are:
1. "For_Follow-up": Action is required by me.
2. "For_Archiving": Useful (or useless) email that is for information purposes that I do not need to take action on
3. "On Hold": Action is required by another person before I can take action myself
, I realized that my email was simply OUT OF CONTROL and because I wasn't managing it properly I was spending way to much time on it. I started exploring different email management tricks and after exploring a few options I finally discovered a simple and effective email management approach that freed up about 2-3 hours per week for me. I wanted to share my experience with you.Background
I manage four email accounts (I can't get away from that for a number of reasons) and I receive between 85 and 135 emails on any given day. I don't say this to impress people because contrary to popular belief I don't believe that email volume correlates with your importance, position, power, or salary. I share this statistic with you to simply provide some context around how significant my email challenge was. You may receive more email or you may receive less email, but chances are you feel the same way I felt ---I was BURIED IN EMAIL and no matter how hard I tried I always seemed to BE BEHIND and had a CLUTTERED Inbox. The clutter was getting to me so much that I was dedicating more and more time to managing my email and less time doing more important things. I needed a solution and giving up email altogether in this day and age wasn't an option; rather I needed help ... help in a FAST way. That's when I discovered Gina Trapani's article on Lifehacker.com called Empty Your Inbox With The Trusted Trio. The simple 'action oriented' folder structure called the "Trusted Trio" worked wonders for me.
The Folders
The three folders referenced in the Trusted Trio article are:
1. "For_Follow-up": Action is required by me.
2. "For_Archiving": Useful (or useless) email that is for information purposes that I do not need to take action on
3. "On Hold": Action is required by another person before I can take action myself
Putting the Trusted Trio to action was quite easy.
My 5 Step Approach For Implementing The Trusted Trio:
1. Each day I check my email at defined periods of time so that I can give it the attention it deserves and NO MORE.
2. After a quick scan of my email I respond to urgent items that I can resolve quickly and I divide my remaining email into one of three folders, as outlined in the Trusted Trio.
3. During the last 30 to 45 minutes of my workday (often on the bus) I respond to any emails that I placed in my "For_Follow-up" folder. As I respond to these emails I transfer them to my "For_Archiving" folder since I've completed the action item.
4. Each morning I review my "On Hold" folder and write short emails to people who I'm awaiting input from in order to take any action that is required by me. I really hate having action items looming over me so I tend to manage this folder pretty closely.
5. At the end of each week I skim my "For_Archiving" folder and review the contents by quickly scanning the email again. If I notice that I'm on a mailing list and rarely read the content I 'unsubscribe' from the distribution list. After that I simple transfer all of my email in this folder to my official "Archives" area in my inbox.
So in five short steps, using three Inbox folders, I have conquered the chaos that use to characterize my inbox and eroded a large part of my day. Gina's Trusted Trio email management approach helped me considerably and if you are struggling with an overflowing Inbox I'd suggest using the Trusted Trio and and tweaking it to suite your own lifestyle.
Enjoy the extra hours that you'll discover in your week if you manage your Inbox instead of it managing you!
Chris
My 5 Step Approach For Implementing The Trusted Trio:
1. Each day I check my email at defined periods of time so that I can give it the attention it deserves and NO MORE.
2. After a quick scan of my email I respond to urgent items that I can resolve quickly and I divide my remaining email into one of three folders, as outlined in the Trusted Trio.
- For_Follow-up
- For_Archiving
- On Hold
3. During the last 30 to 45 minutes of my workday (often on the bus) I respond to any emails that I placed in my "For_Follow-up" folder. As I respond to these emails I transfer them to my "For_Archiving" folder since I've completed the action item.
4. Each morning I review my "On Hold" folder and write short emails to people who I'm awaiting input from in order to take any action that is required by me. I really hate having action items looming over me so I tend to manage this folder pretty closely.
5. At the end of each week I skim my "For_Archiving" folder and review the contents by quickly scanning the email again. If I notice that I'm on a mailing list and rarely read the content I 'unsubscribe' from the distribution list. After that I simple transfer all of my email in this folder to my official "Archives" area in my inbox.
So in five short steps, using three Inbox folders, I have conquered the chaos that use to characterize my inbox and eroded a large part of my day. Gina's Trusted Trio email management approach helped me considerably and if you are struggling with an overflowing Inbox I'd suggest using the Trusted Trio and and tweaking it to suite your own lifestyle.
Enjoy the extra hours that you'll discover in your week if you manage your Inbox instead of it managing you!
Chris
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