Recognizing that an email inbox with hundreds or even thousands of messages stored in it is a bigger psychological drain than we’d care to admit, developing quick action habits are good practice. In her blog the other day, online business marketing consultant B.L. Ochman caught my interest with a quote she took from 43 Folders (one man’s blog about personal productivity and simple ways to make your life a little better):

“Just remember that every email you read, re-read, and re-re-re-re-re-read as it sits in that big dumb pile is actually incurring mental debt on your behalf. The interest you pay on email you’re reluctant to deal with is compounded every day and, in all likelihood, it’s what’s led you to feeling like such a useless slacker today.”

Wondering if Merlin Mann of 43 Folders had practical advice to back up his insightful observation of the email inbox overload syndrome, I found the following advice in his blog from last year:

Processing determines as quickly as possible what, if anything, to do with each piece (in ascending order of urgency and importance):

• delete it
• archive it
• defer it for later response
• generate an action from it
• respond to it immediately (if it—literally—will take less than 2 minutes or is so Earth-shattering that it just can’t wait)

Then as often as time allows, I return to the response and action folders and crank through as many replies and complete (or generate) as many todos as I can—usually in 5-email sprints.

The critical point, as ever, is to focus on action and not on the administration and housekeeping.

I especially like that last point…another way to say keep your priorities in mind! What is important? The core of your business. Is all the administration necessary? Yes. But it is up to you to decide how much and how often and to what extent you allow administration to rule your world.