Manage Your Inbox so it Doesn’t Manage You Featured Image.png

Stop Flagging Your Emails! Manage Your Inbox so it Doesn’t Manage You

Our inboxes have become a default task management system. You can flag emails, save them for later, and work through tasks one by one. But your inbox robs you of agency. Here’s why.

You can flag emails, but you can NOT even sort them by priority. Even a traditional To-Do list is capable of that! The first thing we see is the last thing somebody emailed us, not the most important. The latest becomes the loudest, and when emails fall below the scroll line, they get buried. It’s like having a bunch of sticky notes all over your wall.

FACTS:

An inbox is a grab bag of tasks, projects, reference material, calendar appointments, and more.
Working through this disordered list imposes Task-Switching Fees, and incoming emails serve as Attention Hijackers.
If your inbox impacts what you do next – in any way – you’ll get sucked into low-value activities and become trapped in a reactive work mode.

Our Inbox is default communications channel (like your postal mailbox) and often a tempting source of busywork. It should NOT be a To-Do List.

Since we are hardwired to focus on what’s in front of our face, we waste our attention on random, low-value tasks instead of addressing our priorities. It’s like a climber constantly fiddling with their rope, but neglecting to set up a redundant safety system.

Worse, we get a dopamine hit when we complete each task, which reinforces our behavior.

Email can be problematic, but it’s a necessary tool. The trick is to clear your inbox. Get that stuff out of there! If you use a better system for tasks, projects, and documents, you - and not your inbox - will be the master of your day.

SOLUTIONS:

Clear your inbox by using the P.A.C.T. System and use an efficient way to manage your inbox, such as Sherpa Clearing Process.

If at all possible, clear your inbox completely. You wouldn’t open a letter, decide to choose your healthcare plan later, and put it back in your mailbox!

Clearing doesn’t mean doing. It means moving things from your “incoming” list to your Execution Engine.

Your inbox is someone else’s To-Do list.