The Triage View for Outlook
With the volume of email and other inputs that each of us handle each day, we need a process that allows us to look at each new email or input only once, because . . .
““your time is too valuable to ever look at an email more than once”.”
Many of us tend to read and re-read the same email 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 or more times before taking some sort of action on it.
The problem with this is that, the first time we read an email, it opens a file in our mind and now we’re trying to keep track of it in the short-term memory part of the brain.
This is where we hold all the unfinished, incomplete and undecided things that are happening in our life.
And the problem with this, is that it uses up a lot of RAM (random access memory) in our mind which then limits our capacity to focus and think clearly. As David Allen says, “most people walk around with their RAM bursting at the seams – they’re constantly distracted and disturbed by their own internal mental overload”.
That’s why we need a reliable and repeatable system to capture the results of our thinking and decision-making when processing email. This needs to be a system we can trust to store WHAT we need, WHERE we need it and only bring it back to our attention at the appropriate time WHEN I need it. Once we’ve done that, the mind can let it go, freeing up mental capacity and focus for higher-order thinking, priorities, tasks and projects.
This is a critical skill to master. Unfortunately, the standard configuration of our email software does only the WHAT and WHERE, leaving us to use our mind and memory to take care of the WHEN and this is what consumes so much headspace.
Now, here’s what I believe to be the best system to process new email and inputs in the inbox. It uses the proven 4D methodology that so many of the well-known time management and productivity experts have advocated in one form or another over the years that I have studied this subject. This process allows you to process each email without necessarily having to do the required task right there and then.
You can set up your email program to capture the level of priority, type in the next action required, and the date this next action needs to occur, by customising the view of the inbox and setting it to show your email grouped in date order and sorted by priority.
Once the Triage step has been completed, you’ll see the remaining emails that need your further attention showing in order of priority (so that you do ‘first things first’), the next action to be taken (so you don’t have to re-read and re-analyse the email) and you’ll only see the emails that need your attention today (uncluttered by emails that don’t need your attention till tomorrow, next week, next month etc).
This process of identifying the priority, next action and due date for each email minimises the amount of mental energy needed to keep up with everything – it minimises double-handling and wasted effort. The end result of organising your inbox this way is a saving of enormous amounts of time, energy and effort, cutting through the overload and overwhelm like a hot knife through butter.
You see, it’s not actually the volume of emails you receive that causes overload – it’s reading the same email 3, 5, 8 or more times before taking action that is overwhelming.
Now it’s important to note that this Triage process is not simply looking for the most urgent, most enjoyable or most interesting stuff to deal with first. David Allen calls this ‘emergency scanning’ and while that may be necessary at times (especially when you’re at a conference or ‘on the run’ between meetings), it is not the effective Triage processing method mentioned above.
To Triage effectively, you must use some mental rigour or discipline to process each email one at a time, starting at the top and working your way through each message. As Allen says;
““as soon as you break that rule and start processing only what you feel like or in some random order, you’ll invariably start to leave things undone and your sub-conscious mind will start to get involved in trying to keep track of things”.
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Once you get into the pattern of using this 4D process, it will take less and less mental effort and emotional will-power and it will become more of a habit. This is a good thing. A habit, as defined by James Clear in his excellent book called ‘Atomic Habits’, is “a routine or behaviour that is performed regularly – and in many cases automatically” (ie: with minimal mental rigour).
Here’s how the Triage View revolutionises the way you manage your inbox when using Outlook
BEFORE
The problems with this view of the inbox are that you;
Are constantly scrolling up and down
Tend to cherry-pick which email to action rather than working methodically from top to bottom
Read and re-read each email multiple times
Can’t easily see priorities or when the email needs attention
Feel unorganized and a constant low-level anxiety about what’s in your inbox
Worry about missing or losing an important email or piece of information
AFTER
The Triage View of the inbox allows you to;
Capture the results of your thinking and decision making the first time you read an email
Work through your emails in order of priority
Eliminate need to re-read and re-analyse email
Narrows your focus to only those emails you need to see for today
Frees up enormous amounts of time, energy and headspace
Makes you feel in control, up-to-date, confident and calm
Would you like to have a discovery call with me to determine how we can work together to manage your emails?
The easiest way to connect is to choose a suitable time for us to connect on phone or online by using one of the Calendly links below for the time zone that suits you:
