Crush Your Inbox! - Instant Triage, Instant Focus

Written by Dave Navarro on November 29, 2006

This next installment of the Crush Your Inbox! series brings you one step closer to turning your email account from a jumbled pile of everythings to a well-oiled machine. So far you’ve seen the first step of managing your email followed by a quick way to streamline similar responses. Today we’re going to take a look at triage, email style (or, the art of separating what you need to work on first).

Triage in the hospitals is simple - it’s all about rationing limited medical resources according to the greatest need. The critically ill are separated from the nominally wounded, and those who aren’t in need of immediate attention get separated as well. That way the people who need focus the most get it first.

Now since your time and attention is always going to be limited (busy person that you are), we’re going to apply the same principles to your inbox (and that PROCESS folder as well). Well, if you’re looking at a full that ‘PROCESS’ folder you made earlier), you’ll likely be feeling some tension at figuring out what to deal with first. So let’s divvy it up so the job becomes easier. Here’s the rationale behind why you’ll be doing this:

When you think about it, all the email you receive creates one of three commitments for you:

1. You’ve got to directly respond to it
2. You’ve got to figure out what action to take next with it
3. You’ve got to file it away purely for reference

Now, an important rule of productivity is to get everything you don’t need to be paying attention to out of your area of focus so it’s not distracting you. So that’s what we’re going to do in three simple steps.

Step 1: Create Your Triage Folders
Create three folders with names like “RESPOND TO”, “DECIDE” (meaning “I’ve got to figure out what action to take as a result of this email) and “REFERENCE” (as in, I’m done with this for now). Name them anything you want - you don’t have to use my conventions, I’m just using these for the example - just make sure these three folder names reflect the spirit of the names I gave you. And whatever symbol you used earlier when you created your PROCESS folder, use the same symbol here to prefix your folder names so they bump up to the top of your folder/label list.

Step 2: Triage Your PROCESS Folder
Now you’re going to hop into that PROCESS folder and begin tossing all those emails into the folders that they deserve to be in. Just start at the beginning and churn right through.

Resist the urge to start taking action on any of these emails at the moment (Yes, for once I’m actually telling you not to take immediate action - because your primary objective here is to clear out that PROCESS folder and make sure that things are in the right place). You’ve got to keep focused. The peace of mind you’ll have when things are organized in the right way will give you a productivity boost later when you actually start working on those emails, so don’t worry about it.

When you’re triaging here, you’ll likely come across a few emails that you just have to answer right now. Hey, you know what? They’ve been sitting in your inbox (or your PROCESS folder) for a while now. They can wait a few more minutes. Set the urgent flag / star / (whatever your email client uses) to make that email stand out as high priority and toss it in one of the three folders it belongs in.

Keep hammering at this until it’s done. If you have an inbox with less than 500 emails, this might only take you 30 minutes or so. If you have an insane, 4-digit backlog, you might want to alternate between periods of triaging and periods where you take action on triaged email. But only do this if you’ve worked at triaging at least 30 minutes in a row and you just desperately need a break.

Now, one thing to note - depending on your situation, it may make sense for you to make additional folders for the triage. For example, let’s say you have a backlog of newsletters that really are important to developing your business strategy, and it doesn’t feel right in any of the other folders. It’s not a “RESPOND TO” or a “DECIDE” (since you know what you have to do - read them & learn). And it’s not a “REFERENCE” because it still carries some action with it. You’re not ready to put it away in a virtual filing cabinet.

When I started triaging I hit this issue and simply created two additional folders - “READ THIS” for important newsletters I knew would give me a lot of leverage and “NEWSLETTERS” for those that would be “nice to read.” But while this is okay, don’t go overboard. During this phase, only make extra folders if it’s truly necessary. You’re really just trying to separate things into three categories - “respond to this email,” “figure out what to do as a result of this email,” and “file this sucker away till I need it.”

So triage like you really mean it - keep at it until you’re done with the PROCESS folder - and when you are, delete it. You don’t need it anymore. Burn that ship behind you and move on to the next step …

Step 3: Continually Triage Your Inbox
Now that you’ve done your share of triaging, keep up the habit. All incoming mail needs to be sent to the appropriate folder - but not necessarily these three. You likely have a folder structure set up already where you can move your emails that you no longer need to take action on. Feel free to use these for email that’s finished up. Just make sure that any email that needs action stays in a folder that is all about action (and when that action is taken, shelve it elsewhere)
In all of this you’re focusing on the core principle - keeping your inbox “crushed” down. You’re putting all the emails you need to respond to in one place (for now) and all the emails where you’ve got to figure out what to do in that one folder (for now). That way you know what folders hold things you’ve got to start working on, and you can start diving into them and knocking them out, one by one.

As with anything, your process will evolve to match up with your work style. You’ll come up with more efficient places to put your emails to make the process work better for you (for example, splitting the “RESPOND TO” folder into a “WORK” and “FRIENDS” folder. But the core habit you’ll be holding onto is immediately getting messages where they need to be so it’s clear what action needs to be taken.

And as with anything, it’s the little things (like this) that make the big difference in your focus, stress and productivity levels. So get on it and Crush Your Inbox! You’ll thank yourself for it.