When should we check email?

In case you missed it, my last blog I asked ‘what questions would you like me to answer in my blog and/or the weekly Dr Email Q&A Forum?’

Thanks to everyone who sent through a question – I’m really enjoying them. Please keep sending me your questions, either via email or post them on the Outlook Email Productivity Support Facebook page.

So, here are topics so far. I’ll answer these over coming weeks and in the Dr Email Q&A Forum on 16 February.

  1. When should we check emails and file them into today/tomorrow etc?

  2. How do we sort emails in the day order, but also categories

  3. How to convert a Teams Meeting back to a non-Teams Meeting

  4. Can I create an outlook email template with an attachment, not just the text in the body of the email?

So, here’s the answer to that first question – “When should we check emails and file them into today/tomorrow etc?”

I address the whole issue of getting control of WHEN to check email in the ‘Attention Management’ workshop of the Revolutionise Your Inbox program. In that workshop we look at three models you could adapt so that you check email in;

  • a structured rather than unstructured way

  • with full rather than partial attention

  • in a proactive rather than reactive manner

The three suggested models for checking email are;

  • every half hour (if you’re in a highly responsive role)

  • once per hour (this is the most popular practice)

  • 4 times a day (this is best practice, for most people in most roles)

  • twice a day (especially for managers and executives)

Suggested models for how often to check emaul during the work day.

Once you have one of these structures or schedules in place, you can simply vary it according to your role and/or the busyness of your day – check it less often with longer gaps or more often with shorter gaps.

Most importantly, once you have a schedule and know exactly WHEN you are going to check email, it allows you to turn off all email alerts and not feel anxious about what emails are arriving and when you’ll attend to them. The time and attention saving that this provides is truly astonishing.

For those who need it, you can set a rule that allows email alerts from any key people you feel you need to be available to at all times (eg: your boss, your #1 client etc). But these should be a very few exceptions, otherwise you’ll continue to struggle with constant interruptions and distractions.

The second part of the question asks “and file them into today/tomorrow etc?”

The ability to file them into today or tomorrow or any other future dates is only possible for those using the Triage View of the inbox. This is something I teach during the inbox management workshop of the Revolutionise Your Inbox Online program.

This Triage View allows you to set up additional columns that capture the priority (high, medium, low), Next Action (you can freeform type a description of the next thing that needs to be done with each email), and Due Date (the date on which you plan to take the next action - today, tomorrow, some other date). This effectively turns your inbox into a dated to-do list.

This Triage process should be done every time you visit the inbox (ie: at one of your scheduled, or structured, times mentioned above).

You can see the full article on this topic here and download a one page ‘cheat sheet’ which summarises this process here.

Steuart Snooks