Seriously tackle your email inbox

I’m pretty sure that you would be read countless of articles about time management that told you to that email is the productivity killer.

If you want more time back, it’s simple – just stop responding slavishly to your email and instead tackle them in a controlled fashion.

Check your emails once every hour or twice a day or once a day. Whatever you do, just don’t sit there waiting for the next thing to hit your inbox.

So easy to say, so hard to do. I know there are managers within Taskmaster Enterprises who still consider answering email a key part of their job, no matter how many times I tell them differently.

So here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve going to make an effort to seriously tackle our inboxes in the next few months.

We’ll start by moving to a 90 minute checking regime – that is, every 90 minutes we spend five minutes checking and sorting emails.

One key to this is the delete function. If it is spam or similar, delete it. Permanently.

Another important tool is filing. You might do this according to subject matters (finance, marketing HR) or you might try something simple – set up one folder called “requires attention today” and another called “doesn’t require attention today”.

During the day, you can tackle those requests in the folder that requires immediate attention. At the end of the day, dedicate 30 minutes or so to addressing the items in the other folder.

But don’t feel you need to answer all of them. You’re the boss – delegate tasks where needed and prioritise everything.

Oh, and we’re not going to check our emails outside work, are we?

Get it done – today!