Stop the Scroll – Know Where to Go

Start with using a clear, visual indicator for your to do, action, follow-up items. In Outlook, you can use Flags or Categories. 

In Gmail, you can use a star.

Make sure you have marked all the messages that require follow up. Those can stay in your inbox.

Clean out your inbox without hitting delete

Instead of using your inbox for storage, create a folder (Outlook) or a label (Gmail) title “Keep” or “2022”. Move all the remaining messages in your inbox to that place. While it might not get you to Inbox Zero, it certainly removes a lot of the clutter so you can focus on what you need to do.

This gives you a place to do your work and a separate place to store things you’re done with. 

But this might not stop the scroll – yet. This is where things get really fun.

For this approach, we follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done – the 4 most common things to do with tasks – Delete, Delegate, Do and Defer. We added one to streamline processes – Direct.

When we think of getting organized, we have 2 parts – Processing and Storage. We’ll start with Processing.

Delete – obvious – just delete it.

Delegate – if you’re not the one doing the work, you may still be responsible for the outcome. So where you put messages that you delegate could depend on that.

Do – if it takes 2 minutes or less, just do it and then file it appropriately when you’re done.

Defer – rather than just leaving the messages hanging out in your inbox, this is where we can leverage tools to group messages together in a way that allows you to focus on the various aspects of your work.

By using the Folders/Categories (Outlook) or the Labels/Stars (Gmail) you can create buckets of tasks you’re working on. Rather than thinking about each item as a separate task, consider related tasks as a bucket. For example: Marketing, Business Development, Networking, Client Work.

Use the Folders/Categories or Labels/Stars as your VISUAL way to group common activities.

As you start to allocate time on your calendar to get things done, indicate which bucket you want to work on. Then, use the search feature in your inbox to find those activities and start to work on those specific activities during that allocated time. The goal here is batch processing of like work so you can stay in that zone or head-space and get things done quicker and more efficiently.

For example, I keep a folder for all items I’m waiting to hear back on. Each day, I spend less than 10 minutes reviewing that folder and sending follow-up emails as needed to keep things moving forward. I don’t have to search for the items – they’re all in one place.

Some people prefer to use Folders – but others say, “out of sight, out of mind.” So if you start with moving things into folders, then don’t forget to go there to do your work.

Direct – if you get messages that you could apply an automatic reply to so it goes to the space where you’d organize those messages for future batch processing, do that. Send them right through to that space or assign that category. For example, I get a lot of newsletters. Those don’t require immediate attention, but I like to review them weekly. I keep a processing folder called Read/Review that I catch up with once a week. From there I might save the message, forward it, or delete it. By having a rule in place to put the newsletter directly into the Read/Review folder, I don’t have to spend time moving it from my inbox. That’s how we can use the Direct option.

So for Processing, we suggest the minimum number of folders/labels that you need to process your work. Some options are: TO DO, WAITING, READ/REVIEW – and any of the other buckets that you think are appropriate. 

Then for Storage, keep it simple! Just use a KEEP or 2022 folder for the majority of the items you want to save. You can always search for them later. If you have an existing folder/label system that’s working – keep using it. But if things start piling up in the inbox, move them into one of those bigger storage areas.

Now your messages are organized in a way that you can find what you need to do next. As you block time on your calendar, focus on the bigger buckets. Even consider only processing new emails a couple of times a day so you can stay focused on your priorities. You can use the flags/categories/labels/stars to give visual indicators of the urgency and importance of the message. 

Then stop scrolling and get to work.