Too much email? You’re an idiot!

Let me tell you a secret. I DO have a dark site. From time to time (when nobody is watching) I dive in a book on management techniques. See, I need to do some management myself, and that proves not always easy. So occasionally, I invest the odd dollar in a book that promises to make my life utterly going smoother.

Take email. Personally, I’m convinced it is a communication tool for old people. Long live IM! But David Allen’s book and podcast series “Getting things done” (yep I read it) has a solution for dealing with email in an earthshaking way, using his “GTD Method”: a ground-breaking work-life management system. How? Simple: you need to take action on every piece of email that arrives in your inbox. Now there is a thought. J
It gets better. Divide incoming mail in two piles: things that require action, and things that do not. Easy, is it not? Let’s now focus on the things that require action. Three possibilities: If it takes less than two minutes: just do it. If it takes more than two minutes: delegate it. Or you can choose to just defer it. Seriously, that changes the whole concept of mail, not? J
For the things that require not immediate action: File it, delete it (interesting concept), or flag it for some eventual action later on.