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Inputs and inboxes
==================
Consider how you deal with e-mail. All your e-mail arrives,
automatically, unbidden, unwanted, unloved, in one or more inboxes.
You might have one inbox for work, and another for personal use.
Further, you might have automatic filters that move some incoming
e-mail into other folders: software developers are often on many
discussion mailing lists, each of which goes into its own folder.
Each such folder would be a separate inbox.
A common anti-pattern for people is to keep e-mail in their inboxes.
They read it, and leave it there. The next time they read e-mail, there
might more some new mail, which they read, and leave there. Eventually,
the mail piles up a lot, and it gets hard to find a specific mail you
may need. Even more importantly, it gets hard to know which mails still
require you to do something. Perhaps there was a mail from your boss
you need to re-read? Or a mail from your mother that you need to reply
to? Or perhaps you replied to her already? Can't remember if you did?
Treating an e-mail folder both as an inbox and an archive of old mail,
and mixing it futher up as a list of things to do, leads to confusion,
angst, and stress.
Let's make a small change to e-mail handling. Let's keep only
unprocessed e-mail in the inboxes, and do one of the following things
for every e-mail in each inbox, after reading it:
* delete it, if it is unlikely to be of further use; for example, spam,
or stupid jokes from friends
* reply to it immediately, if you can, and it will only take a minute or two;
for example, your mother asks if you'll be visiting next weekend, and you've
already made plans with your partner to go on holiday, so you can reply
at once saying sorry, not this weekend
* move it to a "need replying" folder, if the mail requires a reply, but
you don't have time to do that right now
* forward it to someone else, perhaps with a cover letter, if it's their job,
not yours, to deal with it; for example, it might be a question only your
boss can answer
* move it to an archival folder, if you think you might need it later on
(Compare the above list with "do, defer, delegate, delete, or file" from
the [[quickie-overview]] chapter.)
When you have time, you look into the "need replying" folder, and reply
to one or more mails in there. After you've replied, you delete or archive
the original mail.
With this change, you have a better handle on your e-mail. You know that
anything in the inbox is unknown and needs to be processed, and anything
in the "need replying" folder needs some action, and that anything you
might need later is in the archival folder. No other mails require any
action, and any mails that do require action are easy to find.
This will make you be much more relaxed about your e-mail. You never need
to worry whether you've replied to everything that needs replying. A further
benefit, also of great benefit, is that you're likely to reply to mail
much faster than before.
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