MAIL MANIA

(this is how you stay in charge of your inbox)

Sometimes I come home feeling super duper satisfied. Wow, that was quite a grand productive day. But when I flip through my hours in my brain, it might just be that I spent half of my time wandering in the digital environment of my inbox. And I can tell you: that environment is anything but enlightening.

I am currently reading the book ‘Never Too Busy’ by Tony Crabbe. With little breaks, because sometimes I just have a trillion other things to do. How cruel is that, right? And in that book, it states that people switch tasks on average every three minutes. Every three minutes. I find that a lot. And that distraction is nine times out of ten, you guessed it, the mailbox (and Insta and Facebook and your app, but those are for later). Fortunately, Tony is not the worst and gives me insight upon insight. And I share that with all love.

Start with a cup of coffee And not with your mail.

Ha, that's a challenge in itself. Imagine that you missed something between last night at eleven and now, just imagine it. But that makes as much sense as you-know-what on a drum set. First, grab some pen and paper (preferably something nice), plan your day carefully and build in moments to check your mail. If you start with that flood, then your inbox completely rules your agenda. It actually means that you (or I) are not in charge, but your day is organized by someone else. You don't want that, you just don't want that.

Silence your alert.

This is the first step to ensure that your inbox does not stage a coup on your agenda. Turn. Your. Alert. Off. But really. Silence that jerk. You become productive from it, you no longer feel like the mailbox is taking over and that response can really wait an hour. On top of that, you don't rush a response, but write it seriously.

“Go forth and email less”

2-minute rule Is it time to check your mail?

Then make a distinction between can-be-done-in-two-minutes and I-need-to-sit-down-for-this. A message that you can quickly, hop, send a response to disappears from your mind if you react immediately. And then you make room for brilliant, creative ideas. You answer the thoughtful emails at the end of your workday, because at five o'clock you really don't start on that humongous task. So it's the perfect moment.

Create folders.

Make sure you dump everything that has been handled into an archive. And the emails you tackle at five o'clock, you set aside in an action-in-the-taxi folder. Do you know what also feels tidy? Just sliding all those CC's into a folder unread. Sounds like horror, but if it's necessary for you to respond to an email, then you should have been in the ‘to’ field.

Fix that CC-terror.

Yes, that brings me to the next sensitive point, the CC-terror. Honestly; how often do you CC a colleague or your boss for your own peace of mind? Not that you do it for your colleague and so we bombard each other with a flow of information. And that's just to cover yourself. Say it, repeat after me: hey, I want out of your CC.

What you do not want to happen to you.

I consider myself reasonably, quite well-mannered. I greet people upon entering, introduce myself if I don't know someone, and say goodbye with a smile when leaving. And yet I fell into the improper, rude emailing. That someone sends you an endless dissertation and I would just type back: ‘That's fine’. Or worse, just ‘Ok’. That can't be right? That's why I now assume that someone has put effort into sending a nice story via email. And if someone makes an effort, then I can at least send back a funny little letter.

So I would say: go forth and email less.