So today I was working in a pharmacy and went to use the email system in that branch. They have Outlook 365 via web, which is fine, and I’m used to Outlook as an email client. Now I needed to go over a few of the historical emails to see what had been read, what had been actioned and more importantly what needed action.
The inbox had 162 unread emails!
The number of read emails in the top level inbox was unbelievable too, they dated back to 2017.
Now this was a challenge for me, as it was the antithesis of how I manage (or try to) my own email inbox. I think I heard the approach I use termed, Zero Inbox, but I could be wrong, and I’m certainly not a top flight practitioner of that mantra - but I do try.
So I have some simple rules to try and keep on top of things…
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The Inbox IS NOT a filing cabinet.
- I only allow emails to land here, and once there I need to make some decisions on what needs to happen with them.
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If it irrelevant to me DELETE
- In this way I keep the archiving of emails down to a minimum which means searching in future should be easier
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If an action is needed then do it now or ASAP
- So I use this as a call to action and try to clear it from the inbox, but if I can’t I will allow it to stay there, but only for a short period of time.
- Once the action is done I archive the email.
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If the email is useful for future reference I archive
- So the only place I keep historic emails is in the archive, and I don’t use an elaborate folder structure, it’s basically just an archive folder.
- I do use “categories” to help me utilise the search function, and an email can be given multiple categories which is a boon.
- Categories can be assigned by simple rules when emails arrive too - so any email involving say the clinical team get a category automatically.
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Review the contents of the Inbox at least once a week
- So sometimes an action (from point 3) has evolved or timed out - so my choices are DELETE as it’s not longer relevant or ARCHIVE as I may need it for future reference/audit.
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Set the Inbox to show the number of emails currently rather than unread
- So this is a bit of “gamification” in that I try to keep this low. A high number induces a little stress for me. So as i type this my INBOX has 16 , whereas the ARCHIVE folder currently has 3814 emails.
So I did tidy the branch email system, and manually moved the two years worth of emails in to the archive folder. I started some categories for important subjects, and applied some rules. Showed the staff how easy it was to see the important emails residing in the Inbox and how easy it was to search the Archive and use the new categories in those searches.