Credit for many of these ideas goes to David Allen, author of Getting Things Done.  I cannot recommend his work highly enough.

It’s a fact: people waste far too much time in their e-mail inbox.  You’re probably one of these people.  E-mail has a funny way of making it feel like you’re accomplishing something even if you aren’t.  The problem with that is that it can absolutely kill productivity – if used ineffectively.

As David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done framework, says in his 2009 book Making it All Work, it’s not information overload that stresses us out, but potential-meaning overload.  In the book, he uses the analogy of nature, which is surely more stimulation than we can process – and yet we find it entirely relaxing.  However, if a snake or a bear could jump out at any time, Allen says, then we experience nature a lot less peacefully.

Many people treat their inboxes as though a “snake” or a “bear” could jump into the inbox at any time.

If you treat your inbox not as a useful tool but as a potential field of landmines, then there is simply no way you can be at your top form.
Read the rest of this entry »