Little Thoughts #3: Don’t skim emails.
Something I’ve learned is never to skim emails. Sit down and read them. Assess what they mean. Understand their ramifications. Build a quick and rough mental time estimate of how long it will take to address what’s in the email.
You have three options:
- If it takes less than five minutes, do it immediately.
- If it requires more time than that, schedule it for later.
- If it’s a dead or already-completed issue, archive it immediately.
Watch your to-do list and your inbox clear out faster than you ever thought possible. :)
There are 4 Comments to "Little Thoughts #3: Don’t skim emails."
I love having an empty inbox. When I started my day job, I had an empty inbox for weeks. Each day, I would do those three steps.
Someone once saw my empty inbox and laughed. He said, “It must be nice not getting any email as the new person”.”
I guess I’m still new. B-)
haha! Oh man, what a terrific — albeit unintentional — compliment!
My list of three actions is slightly different:
1 – Ignore it
2 – Delete it
3 – Deal with it
Gets to the same point in the end though, either deal with it properly or don’t. Don’t half deal with it, because that’s actually a backwards step in most cases.
Dammit! That’s simpler than mine! :)