Like the man who described going bankrupt, my unread emails increased gradually and then suddenly. I had too many emails that were a mixture of FYI’s, conversations I was CC’d on, actionable items I was responsible for, random “thank you” emails, weekly internal newsletter emails, and the list goes on and on and on. There used to be excitement in the air when I received an email as an entry-level engineer. Now, there is a groan from my mouth or a creak in my neck. All of this changed quickly when I discovered David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done.
David’s book is an easy read and covers a lot of ground in a couple hundred pages. The take-away idea is to always empty your head of information and to put it on up-to-date lists. He calls it “mind like water” where there is no anxiety of forgetting something important or not knowing all the next things you ought to be doing. He gives a lot of leeway to apply as much of it as you’d like and in any way you prefer.
His chapters on email were liberating. The inbox should be treated as a platform where you process information. The information should be either tossed, recorded for later, or acted upon. There was no need to worry about FYI’s staying in my head! I could record the info in a list somewhere and toss it out of my head. When the time came to give an update to my boss, I just opened the list and went from there. Boom. I saw an email thread about a get-together for photos in the lobby. I was remote that day. The solution according to David? Read it and toss it out in less than 2 minutes. In fact, he made the 2 minute rule: if an email had information which could be processed in less than 2 minutes, then do it right then! I read email threads that had no importance to me and I marked them as read. If I got an email with an important attachment, I saved the attachment in an organized folder and updated a list. I was shocked by what could be done in less than 2 minutes.
This book made me feel anxiety-free. I no longer felt nervous about my emails; I knew they would be processed and, if needed, acted upon either immediately or at a deferred date.
This book is great. You would do yourself a favor by reading it!
