As providers of a high-performance, low-cost, robust and convenient email service, we’d be remiss if we didn’t provide some tips on using email more effectively.

If you’re trying to get the most out of your email (or any other “productivity tool”, for that matter), I strongly recommend the tips provided at 43 Folders, Merlin Mann’s excellent site devoted to “personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better”. Merlin’s a follower of David Allen’s Getting Things Done system, and in the article Five fast email productivity tips, he’s got these simple tips that should help you better manage a ballooning inbox:

1. Turning off your email client’s “auto check” feature, or slowing it down so it checks for new mail less often — perhaps every 20 minutes or even only once an hour. “If you’re doing anything with new email more than every few minutes, you might want to rethink your approach.”
2. Pick off easy ones. “If you can retire an email with a 1-2 line response (< 2 minutes; pref. 30 seconds), do it now. Remember: this is about action, not about cogitating and filing. Get it off your plate, and get back to work."
3. Write less. “Stop imagining that all your emails need to be epic literature; get better at just keeping the conversation moving by responding quickly and with short actions in the reply. Ask for more information, pose a question, or just say “I don’t know.” Stop trying to be Marcel Proust…”
4. Cheat. If you find yourself constantly sending emails that have the same general structure, consider creating some “form letter” templates that you can fill in quickly. See if there’s software like MailTemplate for your operating system.
5. Be honest. “If you know in your heart that you’re never going to respond to an email, get it out of sight, archive it, or just delete it. Guilt will not make you more responsive two months from now, otherwise, you’d just do it now, right? Trust your instincts, listen to them, and stop trying to be perfect.”

If you’re not the sort of person who likes to change their routine all at once, I suggest you try tips 2 (”Pick off the easy ones”) and 5 (deleting any mail that you know you’ll never respond to or for which you keep putting off responding). These two alone should take care of a significant chunk of your inbox and make you feel less anxious about what David Allen calls “open loops” — those undone things that keep tugging at you throughout the day.

Posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 1:29 pm by Tucows.
Filed under: Tucows Email Service.
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