There they are. Staring at us. Draining us. We spend lots of energy resisting and attacking them. And just as we think we’ve conquered them, more appear, invading our inboxes and starting to close in!
Like sci-fi monsters from the fifties, emails can trap us. Just sitting in our inboxes, they can paralyze us: “What can we do?!” Until, that is, we develop the secret weapon. The movieland scientists had things like Xenon Rays to take down their monsters. We have Four Questions:
- What work? What effort, if any, do we choose to do based on this email? Note the effort may be a simple task (a call, an email), a mini-project of several tasks, or simply noting that we are waiting for someone else’s response.
- Now or later? If we have identified a task, can we do it now, in two minutes or less? Then we do it. If not, we put it on a list for later.
- Keep for reference? If we need to keep this email (and/or its attachments) for reference, archive it.
- Delete? If we don’t archive it, we delete it.
Dedicate the time and use this weapon on each email. No more shall they linger in our inbox and threaten our peace!
In your corner,
Mike
PS: Cue dramatic victory music. 😉
Today’s photo credit: x-ray delta one via photopin cc