If you have been following my posts you’ve probably heard me talk about getting in control of your Inbox. Just a few times! While there are many facets of productivity that I have explored over the years, I keep coming back to this powerful productivity strategy. And here’s why.
In Smart Work I outlined a productivity framework based on three simple circles. Your Actions, where you manage your commitments and priorities. Your Inputs, where you manage your incoming work and requests. And your Outcomes, where you focus on the bigger picture, and the work that really has an impact at the end of the day.
The challenge for many of us is that we are so overwhelmed by incoming work like emails, we spend more time firefighting in our Inbox rather than proactively working on our outcomes. We need to get the balance right and make sure we are spending as little time in our Inbox as possible, whilst still being responsive to the important requests that need our attention. This requires us to reduce the noise levels in our Inbox, streamline our filing and retention systems and become ruthless at processing emails.
The research around this suggests that the average Australian worker spends 3.2 hours per day dealing with email. That is just too much time spent in your Inbox. If you can reduce this, you can invest that time on more important activities that drive your outcomes.
So, you need to get out of your IN and into your OUT.
Make this your mantra over the next few weeks, and see if it shifts your thinking and your behaviour around this.
Talking about getting into my outcomes, I am super excited to be releasing my new book Urgent! on the 1st August. Over the next few weeks my newsletter will focus on some of key strategies from the book. If you would like to pre-order a copy, click here. Otherwise it will be available from August 1st in all good bookstores and online.