These 3 e-mail tips will increase your productivity and save your sanity

In our always on and always connected world, e-mail represents one of our largest time sinks.  Having a plan to consistently deal with e-mail efficiently and effectively will give you some time back to focus on only what's important.  Here are 3 tips for dealing with your Inbox.

Create an @Action folder for your Inbox.  You are going to need a quick place to put e-mails requiring deliberate attention, and David Allen's GTD organize method will give you that place.  In Microsoft Outlook, creating a folder with the name "@Action" puts it at the top of your folder list.  Having it here gives you a prime landing space for dropping of e-mails that need your attention.  E-mails that go into this folder become part of your to-do list, so having it front and center when you are at a place to work through e-mail saves you from hunting for it.

Think before sending.  Is a response actually required?  You don't need to respond to every e-mail, especially if there is a cast of thousands on the To: line.  Only respond to e-mails where your input is critical.  Will sending a reply or starting a new e-mail  thread complete the communication circle, or rather will it begin the spiral to many more follow-ups?  With the power of e-mail comes great responsibility.  Your choice to send or not to send greatly impacts the size of your own Inbox and signals to others how you value time.  Don't send e-mails to others just as a way to delay having to deal with a problem.  

Finally, once you've decided a response is absolutely needed, borrow another productivity tip from David Allen's GTD:  if a task takes two minutes, then just do it instead of adding it to your to-do list.  You are already in the right frame of mind and have invested mental energy in reading and deciding.  Put that investment to work for you and close the loop.  Any task longer than two minutes goes to your @Action folder and becomes part of your future task list.

Be a good role model, set expectations for responses, and choose the right tool for communication (hint:  it isn't always e-mail).  There is one last question you should ask before hitting the send button.  Are you sending just to vent?  If your e-mail is multiple paragraphs of an explanation or you find yourself feeling you must respond to set the record straight, then go ahead and write that e-mail...just don't send it.  Get the problem off your chest and then just let it go.  Delete.