Suggested Email Structure

Ask yourself:

• What’s the meaning and the value of the message?
• What action does this message require of me?

• Do – If it’s actionable, execute the task and archive.
• Delegate – Forward it on.
• Defer – Decide to do it later (snooze it until a concrete time).
• Delete – If possible, do it to reduce your inbox.
• File – If necessary, tag it and set a reminder for later to process items in that tag.

• Check it at 11am and 4pm to make sure it isn’t the first thing you do (and get sucked into) and also so you have a clear inbox by the end of your day.
• If your to-do list is already overflowing, add email checking times to your calendar.
• Close your email software.
• Don’t use an email browser client, because it will be too tempting.
• Use a desktop app with no easily accessible shortcut.
• Hide your email app on the last page of a folder full of apps you never go to.

• Unsubscribe from or filter away the stuff you never read.
• Disable email push notifications on your phone.
• Check emails twice per day to limit the time it takes to check and switch tasks while batch-processing your emails.
• Structure your emails in blocks to allow for automation of parts of it.
• Use canned responses for repeated answers.
• Archive nonurgent messages to reduce your inbox.
• Quote the sender’s email in chunks, replying to each section to avoid confusion.
• Separate your to-do list from your inbox.
• Use a pattern like ‘verb the noun with the object’ in your subject lines to make it more efficient for others to read it.
• Clear your emails by the end of the day so things won’t accumulate for the next one.

• Only use enough quotations to establish the context.
• Your reply should come below it.
• When possible, cut and reformat the quoted text.
• Get tasks out of your email and into a task manager.