An email experiment

With my new discernment about urgency and importance, I decided to do an experiment to wrangle my email inbox into something manageable. Prior to my chat with Kyeli, I was always trying to clear out the inbox before I responded to the emails that needed care and attention. I often ran out of time before I got to the important stuff.

I decided to reclaim my inbox by using Google’s Priority Inbox tool. First, I scan my full inbox, and I delete anything I have no intention of reading. (I’ve even taken myself off some lists to make this a quicker step.) Then, I move everything social (politics, my spiritual community, my friends, family) to a special folder I can indulge in when I’m not working.

Wow does that clear up a lot of emotional space for focusing on work!

Then I look for all the actual emails from live people (not newsletters or advertisements) and flag those so they pop to the top of my Priority Inbox. I star anything personal and important so it doesn’t get lost either. Finally, I demote anything that doesn’t require a response or that I want to read at some point but not right now to a Review and File folder.

Now it’s clear which emails are truly important to tend to right away - they are at the top of my list!

I work my way down though those tiers, only getting to the less important stuff if I have time for it. It’s felt so good to be tending to the important stuff and no longer being caught up in the urgency created by modern life.

I’ve been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and I’m finding myself getting a significantly larger amount of work done in less time.  Naturally, the discerning what is really important vs what is urgent or busywork has overflowed into all aspects of when I am working.  I’m staying focused on task instead of distracted by my online social life and real life.  I’m impressed with how much more efficiently I am getting work down.  

Getting more work done in less time and having more time to connect with people, relax, meditate or do art has been awesome and inspiring.  Wondering what I meant by discerning the difference between urgent and importance?Check out my blog post from last week.