Are you an email slave? I know I was. I would sit down at my computer, open my inbox, and BAM! My next several hours would be spent taking care of all the incoming messages. I’d try to read and reply to every single one., which means, if you think about it, that I was being a slave to whoever happened to send an email, fulfilling their requests about whatever they thought was important enough to deal with. My own priorities? Invisible. After all, I was the only one who wasn’t emailing me and demanding my attention.
And actually, it gets worse. The more someone emails you, the more time you’ll spend replying to that person. Even if they’re not the most important person emailing. Your prompt response just reinforces their tendency to email you more. Great. Just what you need. A brand new dependent. Yippee.
Someone who is very courteous, and very important, and only emails you once with a carefully thought-out email, might even fall through the cracks. You need a way to prioritize the important stuff, even if it’s infrequent, and untangle yourself from the people who use you as a dumping ground for their own work.
Don’t Let the Senders Drive Your Agenda
So don’t read and respond to email reflexively. Read through your inbox, collecting to-do items on a paper list first. Then merge it with your existing task list. Then and only then, start going through your task list to accomplish your tasks.
Let’s say you’re an evil super-genius and you’re making plans to take over the world. (We’re just saying this. I’m sure it isn’t true. After all, what are the chances there are two super-geniuses discussing email overload on one podcast?) You create a plan to build a doomsday device and hold the world hostage. You have another plan to get the maps of the secret tunnels under the Library of Congress so you can steal the Gutenberg bible and oppress free speech in print. And, of course, you have your old standby, raising a zombie army to pursue world domination.
Create a To Do List
Start by pulling your tasks away from your email. Get out a pen and paper where you’ll write a temporary to-do list as you go through your inbox. Use a real pen and paper because you want to make this a little difficult. This is one time when you do want to be hard on yourself. Anything that isn’t worth the effort to write down by hand, you ignore. This forces you to do at least a little bit of screening.
Read each email and ask yourself the question, “What is the to-do item for me in this message?” Then, write the item down and move to the next email.
Everyone Has Their Own Agenda for You
Each of your Dastardly Initiatives has one manager who you coordinate with. You have a Zombie manager, a secret Library of Congress manager, and, of course, your Doomsday Device Engineer. All three send emails this morning.
Your Zombie manager needs a logo for the Zombie army. Write down “Hire designer for Zombie army logo” on your temporary list. Your Library of Congress contact say needs a fake entrance ID to get in. Right now, the only action you’ll take is to wrote “Acquire Library of Congress credentials” on your temporary list. Lastly, your Doomsday Engineer ran out of yellow cake uranium (AGAIN!) and they need more. And the engineer thinks they’re top priority, so they've been emailing every 20 minutes or so burying your inbox in useless chatter.
It would be so tempting just to run out, grab your villainous crew, and snag some uranium. But don’t! Just add “Acquire uranium” to your list. Now that you have your list, it’s time to decide which to do first.
You haven’t acted on any of the emails yet. This is good! Because you don’t even know if any of them deserve any of your time at all. For that, you need to look at them in the context of your entire task list, not just the tasks that came from your email.
Prioritize
Review your paper temporary task list. Also look at your master task list. Then, add your incoming email tasks to your task list, at the place that reflects their actual priority relative to your job overall. Urgent but non-important incoming email should get ignored, in favor of important tasks on your existing task list.
It will be tempting to organize by how urgent each of your managers has made their task seem to be. Your inundation of Doomsday Device uranium emails may feel the most important because of their persistence. But as you review your other tasks, your feelings may change. After all, Uranium has a long half-life, so the yellow cake can wait.
Your prompt response just encourages the parasites to email more!
If you need guidance on how to prioritize tasks, and understanding the difference between urgency and importance, see the previous Get-It-Done Guy article How to Prioritize Your Life.
Indeed, the engineer says the uranium isn’t actually needed until next week, it would just "be fun to have it early." Your Library agent, however, says that the ID must be secured within two days or the security codes will be changed. This is now the most urgent task. After all, you can’t take over the world without a priceless artifact to hold hostage.
The uranium is certainly still important. But it’s now clear that there’s a more urgent and important task to do first. Plus your Doomsday Engineer should learn that sometimes, the less squeaky wheel gets the uranium. Clearly, the Zombie army logo is prioritized last. It is so cool to have a soaring zombie eagle for your undead army’s emblem, but it is not as urgent or important as weapons grade nuclear explosives.
Actually we could debate that one. But for now, you’ve prioritized the tasks on your list. Now it’s time to get them done.
Do the Tasks
Your tasks are prioritized. You have a pencil and paper list of the things you need to accomplish. It’s time to do them. But remember: do your tasks in priority order. That way, you’ll make sure you’re spending your time on the tasks that are most important, not simply humoring needy people like your Doomsday Engineer.
So with a few sinister phone calls, you arrange for the Library of Congress credentials. Then you call Valerie Plame and leave a message asking if she can help you obtain some Uranium. And then you have time for the last task of the day. You hire a designer for the Zombie army logo. You will strike fear into the hearts of the masses!
Turn the table on email, and make it your slave. Scan your inbox and turn it into a written to-do list, without taking any action. Merge the list into your overall task list, prioritize everything in the context of your total job, and then—and only then—get to work.
This is Stever Robbins. Follow Get-It-Done Guy on Twitter and Facebook. I run webinars and other programs to help people be Extraordinarily Productive, and build extraordinary careers. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com,
Work Less, Do More, and Have a Great Life!
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