Managing the email avalanche!

Not specifically psychology or higher-education-related this time – but hopefully helping with organisation and communication for busy academics (and others!)

Nearly everyone I know who works in a university, and elsewhere, moans about the millions of emails they get every day. In the corporate world, a lot of people use the acclaimed ‘Inbox Zero’ model, developed by Merlin Mann. Inbox Zero means keeping your inbox as empty as possible all the time. It has worked for a lot of people, but it’s highly structured and quite rigid, and the pressure of ‘zero’ emails is a bit overwhelming. I’m pretty good at managing my emails, and I’m frequently asked how I manage it. However, having had a period of illness this year, I got really behind, and having an inbox that persisted in having around 100 emails in it despite my best efforts was becoming stressful. I spent a few hours this week having a good clean up, and I’m now back in control (I now have 3 emails in my inbox, and I generally receive around 100-150 emails a day) – how did I do it? And is it realistic in an academic role?

I rarely manage Inbox Zero, but I do have a good system, and I find that it helps me to manage my workload, whilst being a bit more relaxed than Inbox Zero might allow. Here’s how I got there! It’s a system that can be adapted to your own needs, so I thought I’d share it, to maybe help you to finally deal with the email chaos that is typical in academic life. It has some things in common with Inbox Zero, but I find it a bit more flexible. Let me know if you try it, and how it goes for you – and do share your own tips in the comments!

• Hide old emails

The first time I sorted out my emails (around a decade ago), I began by organising them into order of date received. I set up a folder, called it ‘old emails’, and moved every single email that had been sent to me more than six months ago into it. If I hadn’t responded in six months, I probably didn’t need to – but if anything popped up again later, it was easy to find. You might want to be braver – three months? One month?

• Delete, unsubscribe

Next, I found all the mailing list emails, the marketing emails, the stuff that is rarely or never useful. Where it was relevant, fine, I kept it – but otherwise, I clicked the unsubscribe link, removed them from my future inbox, and then deleted them. Gone, forever! Only stay subscribed to things you’re definitely going to find useful – for me, that’s WonkHE, HEPI, AdvanceHE, QAA, and OneHE. That’s it!

• Read and act if you can

We waste a lot of time by reading our emails, not doing anything with them, and having to come back to them and read them again. Instead of constantly reading emails, and then not having time to deal with them, block out some time for email checking (three times a day can be fine), and you’ll find that most of the emails that have arrived can be dealt with really quickly. According to Outlook Analytics, I respond to about half of the emails I receive – others either get deleted, or I file them for future reference. Some get a ‘like’ to acknowledge I’ve received them, while others get a relatively short response – “yes, can you book an appointment with me? My youcanbook me link is below – just take a look and find a time that works for you”. Get those done, and out of your inbox on the first reading.

• Folders

At home, if my house is getting cluttered, I tidy things into cupboards and drawers. In my email, I have folders. The folders have subfolders, so I can find things easily again! For example, in my old Director of Education folder, I had a subfolder called School Education Committee. Once an email was dealt with, it got hidden away in the relevant folder. I can go back to it when I need to, if I need to find the ‘paper’ trail – and it’s easy to search within the folders using the search function.

• The big ones

Some of the emails are more substantive – for example, the three emails currently in my email inbox include a draft MSc dissertation to read, and a co-authored paper that needs my attention. I can’t deal with those quickly, as they need time and focused attention, so they stay in my inbox as a reminder that they need to be done, and I block out some time in my calendar to focus on those. In these cases, they’re ready for me to address on Friday afternoon, and I know it’s safe to leave them until then.

And that’s it! I used to have thousands of emails in my inbox, and I had no idea of what needed attention and what didn’t. They nagged at me – there might be something important hiding in here that you’ve forgotten. Now, the nagging has stopped, and I rarely have more than around 10 emails waiting for my attention – it’s easy to scan down, see what’s there, and feel comfortable that nothing will explode if I don’t respond right now. I can respond promptly to students, and I don’t get loads of ‘did you get my email? can you respond’ follow-ups that add even more clutter to the inbox. And if I take time off, for holidays or other absences, generally, I can catch back up pretty quickly – usually I book my first day back as a meeting-free day, and work through them pretty efficiently, starting by getting rid of the quick ones, and then moving onto the bigger ones (which might take a couple of days). I hope some of the tips might work for you!