Although emails are helpful, they definitely have a way of hindering productivity. Not only do endless emails bog you down and keep you stuck in a loop of endless responses, but the stress of having to wade through both important messages and spam is enough to make you avoid your inbox altogether. There’s a reason why “responding to emails” is the example I always use for a tedious but important task when I explain more complex and detailed productivity techniques.
But there are smaller techniques you can apply directly to email management as well. To stay on top of your work, school, and personal correspondence, you need a productivity plan, but it doesn’t have to be extensive: You can try simple “touch” rules for managing your inbox.
One touch rule
Start by reframing the way you think about every email you receive and consider it an immediate priority. More importantly, I just mean that the email itself is a priority; If you think too hard about this, you will quickly get burned out. You don’t have to do any specific quest in it once it arrives, but you do have to unlock it. The “one-touch” rule is similar to the “two-minute” rule for productivity in this way: A task that takes less than two minutes to complete should be done immediately.
Open the email, reply to it, and then delete or archive it, depending on whether you’ll need it later. If it doesn’t require any response, even better. This method works best for people who receive a lot of emails that aren’t necessary to respond to, such as all-employee updates. The goal is to touch it once instead of coming back to it again and again and deliberating if and when you will respond or engage with it or rather than procrastinating, never opening it, and not being aware of its contents (or even its existence) when you really need to know what it said. Open it, get the information, send feedback if necessary, and be done with it.
Two-touch rule
If you have a lot of emails that need a response and the one-touch rule isn’t working well, you can turn to the “two-touch” method to clear your mind and increase your productivity. At the first touch of an email, decide whether you need to respond to it immediately (with a single touch) or if it is something that can or should be answered later in the week.
What do you think so far?
Use the flagging or snoozing functions in your email service to categorize them, so they’re readily available to you when you’re ready to respond. The first touch is Still Open it immediately – that’s the key. Letting emails pile up is stressful, but opening them right away will help you keep peace in your inbox. Setting aside a specific time to respond to non-urgent messages will also free you up to be more productive, as you’ll know you’ll get it done and won’t feel overwhelmed.
Make sure you schedule time in your week to go back to flagged emails. Try creating a 3-3-3 list to manage your tasks, and designate one of your three medium or small tasks to open all those saved messages.