Curatorialist

How many Emails do you get a day? 100? 150? Me too. A little over a year ago, I was sitting in an airport, heading to a pitch with my co-workers. We were all sitting with our collective mobile devices, Emailing away. All of the sudden, I stood up, threw my arms in the air and shouted out, “I’m at ZERO!!” A temporary victory over my Inbox. And although people laughed, it pointed out something sad. Email is the new boss.

Soon after, I started working on ways to take back control over my work day and, more importantly, the creative process. Email is the quintessential “death of a thousand cuts” because all of the reasons to check it are excusable. It is, after all, productive. But it’s also a diversion. We talk to friends and family through it. We use it as a to-do list; leaving Emails in our Inbox as a reminder to get something done. These things are valid reasons to check Email throughout the day, but together they create a monster of distraction and overwhelmedness. A monster we embrace, because it is often easier than the task at hand. Email is the perfect diversion from our top priority because it is acceptable and, often, helpful. But at its worst, it can be an avoidance tool.

The following three things took me a full year to really embrace and do – weening off the drug is hard – but they are actually very simple tasks and can be employed in under 15 minutes.

1. Rules

The Inbox is the enemy – we are constantly aware of how many emails are in there and it has become an indication of our busy-ness. Rules are the number one secret weapon against the Inbox. Here’s how it works: If you create a really good set of sub-folders in your Inbox, you can use a rule to divert any new message to one of those folders. Now, within those folders, you may see the Email count go up, but the key is that it’s not in your Inbox. And that will make you happy. Different Email clients have different ways of doing Rules, but in Entourage, it’s under the Tools menu. Usually, you will see an “If/Then” panel where you can set all the parameters for any kind of email, be it from a certain sender, contain a certain subject and many other helpful kinds of options. Here are the rules I employ: 1) “All Company” – any email that is sent to a general, all-company Email address goes into a folder called All Company. 2) “Reports” – different companies call their weekly, or daily, reports different things, but you can set a rule to have all of them go into the same folder. 3) “CC’d” – I have any email that I am not the main recipient on go into a “CC” folder. If it is an FYI, it should be treated that way. 4) “Discussions” – I have a number of friends and family who I communicate with throughout the day, and across many days, on a variety of ongoing topics. I very much enjoy  those conversations, but when they stack up in my Inbox, it stresses me out. So, I have their emails go into a “Discussions” folder. 5) “Newsletters” – Almost all junk Email is in HTML format, and you can set a Rule that states that any email that is in HTML goes to a specified folder (I exclude ones from the office or from my contacts). I have all HTML Emails go to “Newsletters,” which also ends up including the Emails I’ve subscribed to. I can sift through the ones I want to read at my leisure.

Over time, your own set of rules, that applies to your life and work environment, begin to work for you like a personal assistant. It’s not that the Emails don’t come in, it’s that they get sorted according to your particular prioritization. For example, I check my CC folder fairly often, but my All Company folder maybe only once a day. Discussions I only look at when I have down time and same with my Newsletters. By putting Emails in appropriate folders, it puts them in a place where they are not as distracting and that means more time with the important things.

2. Turn Off Notifications

Few things are as angering as waiting in line at Baja Fresh and watching the guy at the counter take a phone call order. That’s institutionalized line-cutting, as far as I’m concerned. The sound of the phone ringing makes it impossible to prioritize that call correctly. Same is true with Emails. With Notifications on, either on my phone or on my computer, every time I get a “DING,” I am compelled to look. And each time I glance over, that’s a distraction. And Emails are wicked smart about getting your attention: there’s badges on your icon, bouncing icons, pop up notifications, sounds and vibrations. Turn them all off. Email isn’t your boss, you are Email’s boss. And if something is so urgent that it can’t wait, 100% of the time, someone will call you. Even better, though, the peace and quiet will allow you to get into your zone again.

3. The Email To-Do List.

Start an Email chain with yourself, called “To Do.” Then, when you get Emails that entail you having to do something, add it to that list in a reply to yourself and delete, or file, the original. This is a great way to keep your Emails down and your priorities in order.

There are other tricks, but those are the big three. Do it, don’t look back. Honestly, I almost never end the day with any more than 5 Emails in my inbox, but most importantly, I feel freed of the madness. For the first time in many years, my Email works for me, not the other way around. Hope that’s useful.