A little over a month ago I took a course here at Microsoft titled "Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized" that was developed and given by McGhee Productivity Solutions. It was a very interesting course and well worth the 8 hours. I admit that I haven't implemented everything they suggested, but there are several things I've changed.

The change that probably gave me the most dramatic amount of relief was changing my email habits. I used to use my Inbox as a repository for reminders. If something needed my attention over the next few days I would just leave it marked as unread in my inbox and then get to it eventually. I have always used Outlook's Tasks for tracking mid and long-term stuff, but quick stuff just stayed right there in plain view...my inbox. The 4 Ds changed all that. Do it, Delete it, Delegate it or Defer it. Sweet simplicity at my finger tips.

Honestly, I was pretty good at this even before the class, but I didn't have a formal process to follow. Going into the class I had ~50 emails in my inbox with ~15 unread. I couldn't believe some of the other people in the class with 1,000+ unread emails! They had no idea what was in that mess and if they were missing anything critical. As I said, my problem was what to do with the emails I chose to Defer. Here's a quick description of how they suggest the email process should go...

First of all, only check your email 3-4 times during the day. Block out 15-30 minutes (or however long you need) and just process email during that time. Turn off all of your email reminders (that popup at the bottom right of the screen, the noises, the little envelope in the system tray, etc.) so you aren't distracted from your other tasks. This was my big problem. For years I was responsible for responding to email within 30-60 minutes as part of my job and that became a habit. I was great at responding to email, but I was also a slave to my email reminders...dropping whatever I was doing to see what So-and-so had just sent me. No more.

Now, while you're processing your email you have four choices for each and every email:

• Do it! If the email requires an action on your part and it can be done in less than 2 minutes, do it.
• Delete it! If you've read it and that's all you need to do then make it go bye-bye. There is a bit of a caveat to this action though. If you want to keep the email for reference purposes then just file it in an appropriate sub-folder instead of deleting it.
• Delegate it! If the email request/action item should be handled by someone else then forward it on accordingly.
• Defer it! If you cannot get the request done in less then 2 minutes, defer the action until later when you will have time by creating a Task or adding it as an appointment to your calendar. This is the area that I needed the most help with...a solid tracking system for all of the balls I'm juggling at any given time. I've found that I am comfortable with moving the emails into Tasks as reminders of what I need to do, even for the little things that I used to just keep in my head or leave in my inbox. The key to this system is to review your task list often.

The class was great and really got me psyched about getting organized, but honestly I am still working the kinks out of my process of deferring action items. The class had much more in-depth suggestions for how to handle your deferred items, but I am still digesting it all and implementing the stuff that makes sense to me. Actually, that's the beauty of the class. Even though it was geared around Outlook the instructor emphasized that you should use whatever system makes the most sense for you and only the methods that you are comfortable with. Hybrids of their methods with your own are great, as long as they work for you. I have since gone on to read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, and am making a few other changes based on his methods. In fact, I'll probably write up a review of his book in the near future.

In the end, I highly recommend moving to the 4 Ds method of processing email, it's been quite liberating!

~tod

tags: productivity