THE THREE D'S TO MANAGE YOUR INBOX
No matter what your inbox system entails. A physical box on your desk, tasks in your calendar program, microsoft outlook, you name it. You can use a very simple rule of thumb to help tame it. The three D's of inbox management are DO IT, DELEGATE IT, DEFER IT.
Now these only count for action items. If they are reference items, instructions, iteneraries, etc. Those you have to decide what to do based on your own system. I have evernote, and I have a system of notebooks and tags for those "notes."
Back to the action items.
if it takes less than two minutes to do DO IT. This does alot to clear out your inbox. Not to mention, it feels great to just get something done. One less thing on your to do list
How many times has this happened to you: you have a task, its very simple; like responding to an e-mail, but you get so stuck in the weeds, it's been a week and you haven't gotten around to it? You feel bad, because, to the other person who may not be buried under deadlines, paperwork, etc, it seems like such an easy thing to do. Following the rule of thumb mentioned above saves you from that.
If it takes more than two minutes to do DEFER IT. That is to say, put it on your to do list, put it in your tasks, make a note of it, whatever, and if you have a good organizational system in place use it so that you'll come back to it in a timely manor, and it won't get eaten by the "desk monster" (If you don't have a good organizational system, I would like to recommend you read a book titled Getting Things Done by David Allen.)
DELEGATE IT. These days, I have a TA who sits in my office, files music, stuffs letters and addresses envelopes for my mailings. She also grades my papers. All I do is make a grading key. She makes copies, and scans important documents for me. These are all tasks that used to consume alot of time, but I realized I was doing these important urgent things that basically anyone with an 8th grade or better education could do, and I was not using my degree or my skill set to make my classroom better and better help my students.
Before I had a TA, I used to have my classes help me. I'd make an assembly line, and I'd have the kids go through it and stuff envelopes for my mailings. We could stuff and address 50 envelopes in just over 5 minutes. If I had a kid get in to trouble. They would meet me before or after school and file music. (I had a cheat sheet for them to show them how to do it,) There is free labor out there. Harness it.
What urgent tasks are keeping you from what you really feel is important? How many great ideas have you ditched because you didn't have the time? If any of those tasks are able to be delegated. Do it! You'll be glad you did.
Tune in next time for tips and tricks to manage your E-Mail inbox. Every day I check my e-mail no more than 2 times, and I have 0 unread e-mails by the end of the day. If you are interested I'll share some tricks with you to help you zero out YOUR inbox too.
Take care mind shapers.
