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STAYING PRODUCTIVE
Four Ds Can Help You Reach and Maintain Inbox Zero
Chapter 2: Hint — They’re not distraction, despair, dread, and defeat
Chapter 1 of this two-part series covered getting rid of 85% of your email inbox by aggressively deploying “unsubscribe” and unchecking automatic subscription offers whenever you surf or shop.
Chapter 2 is about the 15% you still have.
The four Ds of inbox management have become second nature for me since I learned them ten years ago. The idea isn’t new; it has been more broadly applied to time management for years.
The Ds are — if you already knew or glanced at the links — Delete, Do, Defer, and Delegate. For me, they work best in that order. I apply one or more every time I look at Outlook at work or open my personal Gmail inboxes.
I “look at” Outlook at work and I “open” Gmail at home. The verbs are important.
Work and personal emails are not the same
Outlook is always open on my desktop at work, minimized or in the background. Whenever I use Outlook to write a work email — which is often — I first take a moment to clear whatever has come in then write my email. Before moving on to the next task, I deal…
