Helpful Email Tip: Always Draw from the Top
I’m pretty good at keeping up with a lot of projects, but inevitably I fall behind on some emails. The way it works for me is that I get stuck on a final batch—I fly through a couple of hundred messages a day, but then there are at least a dozen that stymie me.
I mentioned this phenomenon on Twitter recently, and @kavla made an interesting comment:
@chrisguillebeau if you never cherry pick that doesn't happen. #alwaysdrawfromthetop
— Kav Latiolais (@kavla) July 28, 2014
In other words: first in, first out. Address the issues related to one email at a time without skipping ahead.
I should mention that I don’t think this will always work for me. Part of the reason I can fly through 200+ messages is because I work on them somewhat out of order, focusing on clearing the easier messages first.
Nevertheless, I can also see that if you’re able to follow the strategy with no exceptions, it might help you.
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