Dealing with email effectively....oh and buying a new car
Last week I called in at my local car dealership to look at a new car. My existing car is fine, and has got at least another 2 years of reliability left (I hope). The new car looked great, so much so that I even took it for a cheeky test drive.
I came away with my head spinning. My brain wanted it right now, and to have the deal done and dusted. In reality I had more thinking and deciding to do; Can I afford it?, Will Mrs S like it?, do I trade in the old car or sell privately, can I get the finance deal I want on it?
Email and our heads
This is a bit like when we deal with emails coming into our inbox. Our heads naturally want to get them dealt with and off our plate straight away, or at worst a decision is made to not make a decision just yet on it. Both ways are stressful.
Some people are at the extreme, and want to respond to every email immediately so there is nothing in the inbox to think about. This is very tricky, as to find the answer they require and to formulate your reply, yes could take 30 seconds, but what if it took much longer than that. For example, to formulate the reply you need to research some information or speak with a colleague.
Is emailing ever finished?
What happens at 4pm on a Friday when you wanted a nice empty inbox, so your head is clear from distraction over the weekend. Then the mother of all emails lands in front of you. This is when the process can fall down. Do I stay late, do I do it over the weekend, or do I leave it until next week? Of course it really depends exactly the urgency of the situation, not on the fact that you want an empty inbox.
Our email systems don’t come with a manual of how to effectively deal with email coming into the inbox. The way we choose to deal with them is different for each of us, as we have to find our own way. And that can be stressful. Am I doing it the best way? Why is my inbox controlling my actions? Am I going to remember that email I flagged?, etc
Try a different approach
With “Inbox Zero” (see my workshop) you get a process to deal with that constant flow of emails that arrive. Emails that need to be (excuse the car pun) “parked” in a sensible way, so you can relax and get on with other work, and your life, without your head being dragged back into your inbox at random times.
So what’s happened about the car I hear you ask. We’ll, like some of my emails, I’ve parked that idea too. I’ll spend the time gathering all of the pieces of information I need to make the final decision. I’ve already hit the first blocker, Mrs S doesn’t like the colour of the seats!
Want to know more about the advantages of the Inbox Zero approach, take a look at … https://www.jamiesquires.co.uk/productivity-training/become-an-inbox-zero-superhero/