Life as a Productivity Suite – Part 1: Email

In this series of blog posts, I write about productivity as a means of handling the volume and stress of today’s mostly digital life.

I love productivity. I don’t only mean productivity in the sense of efficiency – the amount of output per unit time – but productivity in the sense of doing things in the most restful manner possible (which still typically amounts to higher efficiency). All the time you save through productivity when accumulated in the long term is time that could be spent in other activities such as reading, traveling, sleeping, i.e. stuff that keeps us sane.

Let’s start with the dreaded email.

Be a constant replying machine #

While writing an email, some of us worry about our writing voice, on how we’ll sound to the recipient and how our message can be interpreted based on its tone. I’ve written so much email in my life that I have gone through a major transition in how I voice myself in emails. I started behaving from someone who cares a lot about sounding formal, smart, and sophisticated, to someone who writes straight to the point. The latter has worked way better for me.

Write, send, and brush it off.

Don’t be too hard on yourself that you always need to obey formal structure. There’s no need to structure the email into an introduction, the main body, and some closing remarks. People receive dozens of emails per day and we will be doing each other a favor if we all send emails that talk straight to the point. In fact, I prefer to read and reply to brief emails on-the-spot, and save the longer ones at a later time when I have more energy to spend. The point here is to have the following attitude: write, send, and brush off thinking about stuff that you could’ve put in the email or how you would sound to the recipient.

Inbox Zero #

Want to reach inbox zero? Ruthlessly archive or unsubscribe.

I created a two-step process which really paved the way towards everlasting inbox zero:

1. Figure out which action is required for you to make use of the email. If it’s an email containing advice on Rails security, my chosen action would be to include the main points in my notes about Rails best practices (in Evernote). If it’s an email from someone with a question or inquiry, the obvious action is to reply accordingly. If it’s a promotional email with an upcoming event, create an event in your calendar. If it’s about a product that you really want, proceed with a purchase or put it on your wishlist. Otherwise, the email is probably not worthy of your inbox.
2. Archive. Finished doing the action required? Archive. Have you sent a reply but the discussion is still ongoing? Schedule a follow up then archive.

Here’s a more detailed flowchart of the process above (click to enlarge the image).

We subscribe to newsletters and campaigns mostly to scour important information or to be informed of upcoming events or promotions. Use the flowchart above to find out if such emails are worth keeping. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and hit that link to unsubscribe.

Note that the process above doesn’t aim to have your inbox empty at all times. Besides, this isn’t [what inbox zero really mean](inboxzero.com). There will always be emails that you still haven’t acted upon. But hopefully there will just be a few of them at any given time. The number of emails that stay in my inbox usually range from 3 - 10. The number dramatically goes down whenever I return for inbox review: reply and archive, repeat.

Email Tracking #

Another thing that limits our email productivity is the kind of email that have been pending and will stay pending for an uncertain amount of time. This is mostly due to a lack of status update from the recipient. “What is she doing? Has she been checking my emails?” It is during this point where email tracking becomes very useful. Email tracking lets you find out if your emails have been opened or not. It also tracks if a recipient clicks on any link that you included in the email.

There are tons of email tracking services out there. Yesware, Streak, and [ToutApp](www1.toutapp.com) are some of the notable email tracking services. We track emails to approximate if the recipient is on vacation or seldom opens her inbox (due to the email not being opened), or to determine the best time to send a follow-up email (due to the email being opened at certain times). For example, if an email gets opened several times over a few days, then your email is probably under consideration by the recipient and you may expect a reply soon. If such activity stops, then you can start estimating when to send a follow-up email. Remember not to scare the recipient like “Hey I saw that you were reading my email last week and I’d like to follow up on..”.

Most email tracking services only work if you’re using email through a web browser since they mostly act as browser plugins. But would you like to track emails on multiple email accounts? It will be very inconvenient to constantly switch between accounts or keep multiple browser windows open just so you can track all your emails in all your accounts. I went through such inconvenience only to conclude that I don’t have to track every email that I send. In this case I suggest using an email client such as Sparrow, Apple’s default Mail app, or Thunderbird to unify and simplify the handling of multiple email accounts on your computer. Only write and send emails through the browser (along with your favorite email tracking plugin) if you need to track emails of particular importance.

Dead end? Archive. #

We’ve come to the inevitable end-game scenario where we’ve sent follow-up emails and a considerable length of time has already passed, but we still haven’t received any replies or updates. Archive the email, brush it off, and move on. (And if they ever touch base again like “We’re really sorry we haven’t gotten back to you in so long. We’ve been busy with project/s during the last N-months..”. Homecourt advantage, sir.)