They grab our attention and then they just hang around. Not important enough to do anything with right now and possibly important enough that we’d feel guilty just deleting them, these inbox blocks make it hard to get on top of our emails and leave us feeling perpetually behind.
Maybe it’s that notice of an upcoming seminar. Or an interesting article or video we don’t have time to read or watch just now. Or information about a current project that needs no action. Or maybe it’s a stack of these blog posts. 🙂 What do we do with those emails?
We can do one of three things depending on the content of the email:
- If it is something you might want to read or watch, create a task in your effectiveness system that looks something like this “Read the blog post “Inbox Blocks”; archived.” Put this task on your “back burner list” of things you might do one day. Archive the email to get it out of your inbox.
- If it is reference material for a project, make an entry in your project notes indicating the material is available in your email archives. Archive the email to get it out of your inbox.
- If it is something you want to consider in the future and is time sensitive (therefore, not appropriate for your back burner list), make a task with an alarm to remind you to look up this item in your email archive and review it again. Archive the email to get it out of your inbox.
These simple steps can seem like too much effort…until, that is, we clear those inbox blocks and feel on top of the world.
In your corner,
Mike
Today’s photo credit: Giulia van Pelt via photopin cc