6 Tips to take down your email inbox Chuck Norris style

It should come of no surprise that I hate email. I hate email though. Wait, did I say that already? Lots of people tell me they hate email and some of them are terrible at managing it too. While I’m no expert, at the end of every month, I give my email inbox and roundhouse kick to the face and demolish it. Work emails, personal emails, blog emails. BAM. So how does a guy who gets a ton of email get through it and gets to zero every month?

1. Take action now. When you read your email, you have a decision to make. It stays or it is gone. Since I use Gmail, I archive 90% of my email. I read through it and take action. Either I am going to respond or I am not. I don’t leave anything in my inbox ever that I won’t be responding to shortly.
2. No email discussions. You want to have an email discussion? No you don’t. Discussions happen over the phone, in-person or even in an online chat. My rule: you want to discuss something? We get three emails. If we can flesh it out in three emails, fine. If we can’t, we are getting on the phone.
3. Set times to respond more thoughtfully. For me, that time is after my wife goes to bed. I give myself 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to simply respond to emails I’ve set aside to respond to. If I can’t respond to your email in under five minutes, this is where your response is going to go.
4. Your inbox is not a to-do list. Everyone who advises people and companies on best email practices always says this and no one listens. Ever. I do it at times to. Like, Jay from Make Work Meaningful reminded me that I needed to post and it sat in my inbox for two weeks before I put it on my calendar. Now I am on the plane writing this post because my reminder popped up and said “Hey, remember you were supposed to write that.” Of course I remember.
5. Your time is worth something. The power of no is an important one. When someone wants to disrespect your time via email, they are disrespecting you and being rude. A list of 15 questions? No, sorry. An introduction to my network and you’re a stranger. No, sorry. While I think even the apology is unnecessary, it will make you feel a little better about being so short. Will some people think you’re rude for saying no? Of course. They were rude to begin with though and you are setting your boundaries. Nothing wrong with that.
6. Don’t be A hypocrite. The worst person in the world? The guy that asks you if you got his email that he sent five minutes ago but can’t figure out how to respond within the decade. Here’s the rule: you need something now, you use contact methods that work now. A phone call. A text. A walk over to their space.

How do you manage your email? Are you like the CEO I worked for that has a five figure inbox? Do you keep it nice and tidy? Or do you fall somewhere in between?

Email photo by Mzelle Biscotte. Checklist photo by adesigna. Both licensed under CC.