Getting Your s Under Control with Gerry Devine Practice Manager Adviser

It’s All His Fault

Drowning in s? Flood of s Volume is increasing Unorganised chaos Needless stress

Keep calm it’s only an A good systematic approach is critical Too many in your inbox = needless stress and feeling overwhelmed Same challenges as managing a physical tray I can’t see the wood for the trees

The Big Challenge Empty regularly Schedule in read and work You’ll feel psychologically unburdened More in control Remember an inbox is a reflection of other people’s priorities and not yours

The Basics Use the delete key - Get rid of what you don’t need File - Develop a simple storage system - If you are ‘a when in doubt keep person’ – fine but store rather than clog up your inbox Complete the under two minutes ones - Deal with anything that will take less than two minutes with one touch at the first time of reading Organise s that require action and follow-up -Create ‘action’ and ‘waiting for’ files

This Simple Systematic Approach

‘Inbox Zero’ Your inbox is NOT where your s should be stored It is a temporary holding place Processed and read s are NOT in your inbox they are ‘somewhere else’ Each time you process an your goal should be to have a zero inbox count

Folder Structure The workflow approach to management requires that you create three folders: All s go in here that would take longer than two minutes to respond to Reply All s go in here when you are waiting for a response or want to Waiting All other s go in here that you may want to be able to access later Archive

The Two Minute Rule Longer than 2 minutes > ‘Reply’ folder Do not read the same more than once Those who need a quick response get it and you schedule in time for those that need more attention Handling s as you receive them lacks any prioritisation and is very inefficient

Management Workflow

The ‘Twice A Day Rule’ Key to management is discipline This gives time in-between checking ‘to get things done’ 1 DON’T look in your inbox every few minutes 2 Schedule in a morning and afternoon review 3 Review ‘waiting for’ folder if no response received within 48hrs send brief reminder and move folder to archive once response received

Keep Calm AND Manage your s before your s start to manage you.