Struggling with email?

Email has been around for decades, yet many of us still haven’t mastered it, and it isn’t taught in schools.

Try this, every day, 20 minutes at a time. It’s called email triage.

Do NOTHING else while doing it. No multitasking. Setting a timer will help focus. Quit Teams and ideally put Outlook in offline mode. Otherwise you’ll be distracted.

Start from the first email, top of your inbox. One at a time.

Does it require an action or response from you?

• If No, hit the Archive button to make it disappear from your inbox. You will find it later if you need to. The search is your friend. An archiving system with folders is optional, but note maintaining it will eat some of your cognitive energy, which is a finite supply.
• If Yes, can you respond in two minutes? Do it right away.
• If No, put it in your favorite action tracker and acknowledge to the sender when you estimate being able to follow up. They’ll appreciate it, trust me. Even if it’s three weeks from now.
• Rinse and repeat for each item in your inbox

Aim for zero mails in the inbox at least every two days.

Did you remember to focus on this activity only and not multitask?

Take a short break every 20 mins. You can also split this to multiple chunks during the day, but aim for 2–3 total.

Once established, if you consistently need more than 2–3 hours per day for this, you may be suffering from unsustainable inbound overflow. This is a condition which doesn’t affect only you, but also your peers and stakeholders. Ask for help. Talk to your manager.

Pro tip: Include your other inflows, like instant messages.