...and boy are my eyes tired.
I had let things go a little. Actually a lot. It took between 3 and 4 hours to get caught up over the course of two nights. Why, I asked myself, and there must be a better way.
I like the thoughts Tim Ferriss has on how to handle e-mail in his book 'The Four Hour Work Week'. He mentions limiting the checking of e-mail to twice a day. Let others know so that they know not to expect an immediate response. That way he is not pulled away from whatever he is doing every time the little notification dings saying you have something new in your inbox. This can work well in some situations depending on your work, your interaction with others, and your scheduling. It can also work in matters other than e-mail.
Dividing work and personal though can create a whole different set of rules to work by.
It was my personal e-mail accounts that I had let slip to the point that many items had expired or were no longer valid while some of them were follow ups or should I say predecessors to later conversations. OOPS.
I have studied what others have done and I have some good habits of my own so I really need to focus or rather reapply those lessons I already have in hand. The rules for old postal physical e-mail can apply here.
1. Is it junk? Toss it. -- Most e-mail programs have pretty good spam filters but some still slips through. It is a good first line of defense though and we should rely on it more. I still look at the junk folder just to make sure nothing good was sorted there by mistake. It very seldom is. I could probably just delete it blindly and be none the worse for wear but I still look. Maybe I will quit that habit and just clear the bin.
For those things that make it through, if it is junk and you can tell right away then toss it. We have all seen more than our share of junk in our lifetimes. It is not that hard to identify. 'But maybe this one is different' I say to myself. Wrong. It is junk. Do not get a case of invalid curiosity. Do not get attached. Do not place value on it that isn't there. Just let it go, quickly, quietly, efficiently.
This also goes for all those little e-mails from companies we have signed up for with the hope of having an honest to goodness too good to pass up one time offer that really qualifies for a bargain. I get a lot of these and to be honest with myself it is just so much wishful thinking. If over the past year I have not received an offer that had me act on it or at least wish I could have at the time, then they are no longer worthy to send me e-mail and it is time to unsubscribe. You are junk to me now.
2. Does it require action now? -- Yes. All interruptions require action now, if not, they would have waited until they were not an interruption. Question is, does the action required need to be done now or can it be done later? How much time will it take, how important is it, how does it align with my priorities; the continual weighing of effort and importance.
If you have taken any time management courses there is always someway of ranking work and personal effort. Whether categories of A, B, C or four quadrants of important, unimportant, urgent, and un-urgent, or some variation, it comes down to what you want, but you must decide.
2a. In a work situation that requires you to be available real time, then my suggestion is to quickly decide if this is something I must respond to now (like a note from a boss) then by all means respond now. If the priority exceeds what you are working on at the present time then your workload has effectively been re-prioritized and you need to respond now. Otherwise, add it to your to do list in properly prioritized order and get back to what you where doing. Work your list in most important to least and as long as there is not a specific deadline for it's accomplishment or if it is further out than today, then first priorities first.
2b. For personal situations I will do it differently. Since I am at my designated time for checking e-mail I will sometimes use available time and effort required as the first priority. Since I have already delayed checking my inbox until I was ready to deal with it then my priority at the moment is working the inbox. If an e-mail takes very little time to view and if needed respond then that is what I will do. As quickly as possible read the offer, notice the event announcement, take note of the news, and move one. If it is an e-mail from someone I know, I will take the time to view and respond as required. If the e-mail looks like it will take a longer amount of time to read, or act upon then I will decide if it is something that interest me enough to want to take the time (I because I have such a curiosity factor at play it usually always does) to delve into the e-mail, but if I just don't have the time to devote to it now then I will set it aside for later and use other time when available to spend on these items.
That is pretty much it. My problem arouse from when twice a day became twice a month because it had been a very busy month. Then it becomes a catch up problem instead of a keep up problem.
As my Dad used to tell me, 'If you would just do some yard work 30 minutes at a time a couple of times a week your yard wouldn't look like that'. Also I wouldn't hate yard work so much because I wouldn't get stuck spending an entire day off just trying to keep the city from giving me a ticket. Some cities are just like that.
But the same principle applies. If I spend a little time every so often and not letting it become a big catch up project, then taking care of business is not an issue. It is probably a good thing I don't get a lot of comments on this blog. I could take way too long to respond and you would think I didn't care when in reality I was just off checking my e-mail.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.
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