Business Insight Zone

Possibly you thought that “Ten handy tips to build your inbox-fu” plumbed the depths of that antique and hermetic art? Not so! Here are 11 more methods, culled from the illustrated scrolls locked within the hidden mountain fortress of the Dragon Claw School:

1. “Not My Problem” — Sweep the inbox for chores that could or should be addressed better by someone else. Delegate without remorse.
2. “Tete-a-Tete” — Group your inbox messages by sender. Pick one colleague; print out or summarize all relevant messages; set up one meeting to address all of them.
3. “Let the Good Times Roll” — Process your inbox in the evening, at home, on the couch, with a strong drink and fun music.
4. “Erosion” — Note how many e-mails are in your inbox now. Commit to lowering that number by a set amount (20? 50?) each day.
5. “Pareto” — 20% of your inbox contains 80% of its value. Act on those messages and file or delete the rest.
6. “Age before Beauty” — Keep it simple: find the oldest e-mail in your inbox and handle it. Repeat.
7. “It’ll Keep” — Don’t check your inbox before 11 a.m. — but when you do get to it, hit it hard. (This is the horde-defeating technique of Master Goodridge.)
8. “Luck of the Draw” — Choose one e-mail at random, and do SOMETHING to move on it. No skipping.
9. “Capture the Flag” — If you use flags (or stars etc.) to highlight e-mails, pick ONE of those and handle it to completion.
10. “The Brush-Off” — Find messages that can be answered honestly with “Sorry, but I can’t help.” Answer, archive, move on.
11. “Expiration Date” — If you haven’t looked at an e-mail in 6 months, archive or delete it without action. (Master Van Arsdale employed this defense in repelling the demon army of the Squid Emperor.)

There is great power in these techniques. Use them wisely, and share your knowledge with those whose hearts are pure.

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Image by Axel Bührmann, used under a CC-Share Alike license and filled with the fighting spirits of one thousand mighty e-mail warriors from days gone by.