As part of the 60 Day Challenge https://www.wellsassoc.co.uk/the-60-day-effectiveness-challenge/ I discovered that I needed a better way of getting to zero inbox at the end of each day. Previously I had been using a series of folders within Outlook and whilst this was relatively effective it was taking too long and therefore I worked out how to get a zero inbox by using Asana.
For those of you who don’t know Asana it is a project management tool but it can also be used as a very effective to do list especially when it comes to email.
Here is my current email system:
The rule is no email may remain in the inbox once it has been read and I try to only read emails six times per day.
If an email is for information only then read it and file it.
If an email can be dealt with in less than five minutes then do it immediately and then file it.
If an email can be dealt with in less than five minutes but then requires a subsequent reply then do it immediately, file it and send the return email requesting the reply to the sender and to Asana and place under a heading “Awaiting Reply” and set a follow up date in Asana.
If an email will take longer than five minutes to deal with then transfer it to Asana, set the appropriate time for it to be worked on and then file the original email.
This way all emails are filed immediately they are read and you have created not only zero inbox but also a to do list and organised the time when you can sort it out. A triple victory.
That’s how to get a zero inbox by using Asana and get the bonus of managing the workload created by emails at the same time.
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