Emptying your in-box

When you do check your email, make sure that you have enough time to dispense with all the email messages in your in-box. You might want to allow a half hour for instance every time you check your email. Handle it only once where possible and never leave it in the in-box. With paperwork we call it the FAST method. File it, Act on it, Schedule it or Toss it. With email, we call it the FADES method. Here are the five things you can do with email in order to prevent it from accumulating in your in-box.

1. Forward it to someone else to handle.
2. Answer it if it can be done in a few minutes.
3. Delete it if you don’t need it.
4. Export it or empty it into the appropriate electronic file.
5. Schedule a time in your planner to work on it and move the email to an “Action” folder on your desktop or onto your To Do list.

When you are finished, your in-box should be empty. If you can’t do these things, and leave your in-box empty, you don’t have an email problem, you have a decision-making problem.