You probably remember the days when you loved email. I do. When I was in college, I had 4 really good guy friends and we’d send out this long, massive, email updates about what was going on with our lives, sharing about our ups and downs, and about the girls we were dating (or wanted to date). I loved getting email.
But we all know those days are long-gone.
While I still use email for some personal correspondence, that has largely been replaced by texting, Twitter and Facebook. Now, my email Inbox has simply become a list of things requiring my attention to do. I forget who it was, but I heard someone describe your email Inbox as your TODO list that other people get to make for you.
Now – there are a lot of different methods out there when it comes to how to deal with email today. One method which I had tried for awhile (and is still something I strive for) is called Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero. It’s definitely worth checking out and has some simple techniques that you can begin implementing today. I shared this via Twitter some months ago, and at least one friend decided to take it on, and so I get a little bit of joy each time I see a tweet of his that includes the #inboxzero hashtag.
I find that email consumes so much of my day and ministry work – and so I’m always looking for simple methods and ways to help me with this daily workflow. Yes, email has evolved and it’s probably on the decline – but it’s certainly not going away anytime soon. So it’s important to figure out how to not allow it to consume our days. Below are just a few ways to help you manage and cut down on email.
1. Decide on Your Process
Just having a system to help you manage your email is the first step. There are many out there to pick, so do some searching and find out that works for you. Inbox Zero says that you process your inbox into the following categories:
- Delete
- Delegate
- Respond
- Defer
- Do
And the goal is to zero out your Inbox. Gone are the days when you should have thousands of emails in your Inbox. I still cringe whenever I see that. I feel good about closing my computer at night when my inbox is totally zeroed out.
2. Five Sentences
I’ve seen the five.sentenc.es approach used by some folks, and I find it intriguing. This is from their website:
The Problem: E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.
The Solution: Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.
They also offer other sites including two.sentenc.es, three.sentenc.es and http://four.sentenc.es, depending on your skill in brevity. I haven’t tried this approach myself, but I’m thinking of starting. I’ve noticed that, especially in ministry, there have been times that I’ve typed and sent very lengthy emails, which then require very lengthy replies, when then require even lengthier replies, and then both people just start to get confused, or someone eventually says “Hey – maybe we should just grab coffee for an hour and hammer this out face-to-face.” So, I think brevity may indeed be helpful. Try it out for a week – and see what happens!
3. Don’t Reply
Yes – that’s right. Don’t reply. I don’t know where I heard this – but it makes sense. Actually, it is completely common sense. The more email you send, the more email you’re getting to get. Duh. How many times have you received an email that was simply information for you – and you felt that you had to send a response, even if it was just a “thanks for the info…blah blah blah” email. That takes time for you to write. That takes time for the other person to read. And then they have to deal with the same question, “Now, do I need to send a response?”
So just don’t reply. If the email is one that does not expect or demand a reply, don’t reply. It’s that easy. It’s not rude (or it might be – I’ll let you be the judge of whether you think the person really needs or expects a reply) – it’s just using your time better.
So – try some of these out. See if they help you out. And please share some of your email tips below in the comments.
