Lifehack for managers: 4F your way to e-mail success

Klinger wanted to go 4F from the Army, but I want you to go 4F for your e-mail!

As an IT manager, I have days where I get several thousand e-mail messages, and have days where I need to actually pay attention to several hundred of those messages. If I didn't have a system to do this, I would be dead in the water, and spend most days at the office until late at night. Thankfully, I developed a lifehack that helps me do this.

4Fs for E-mail Success

File it: Many of the messages I get are automated messages from a particular mailbox or are messages sent to a particular distribution list that I need to read, but that don't require immediate action. In fact sometimes if I ignore these messages long enough, I don't even need to read them because I get the next batch of messages that overwrites the previous edition.

If I can't set up a rule to deal with the messages, I have to review the message. Often I can tell from the sender that this is something that I may need to keep for future reference, or that requires greater depth. I'll add it to a particular folder based on what the message is, and I'll file it away. If I need to read it, I'll add it to my @toread folder, which by default is the first folder in my mailbox.

Forward it: Many of the messages I get I get because people don't know who else to turn to (I'm a Help Desk manager and I love to help) or because people like me (what can I say, I'm a nice guy!) In these cases, I forward the message on to the right department, or I create a ticket so someone in IT can work on the issue.

I also forward along many e-mails to my team as FYIs. I try to quickly scan the message so I can pull the key point out, I may edit the subject line, but if I'm forwarding it on, I usually don't spend more than a minute reviewing the message because it's often something time sensitive or something very important as a policy change. I err on the side of oversharing rather than under-sharing, because I know I hate to be kept in the dark AND because our team gets asked lots of non-standard questions so we have to have lots of information.

Flag it: As a manager, I often have to follow-up on messages I send out, or messages I am copied in on, to make sure they get done. I flag these messages for later, sometimes even with a date and time to follow-up on them. The mere act of setting a flag reminds me that this is an important message, and I can review it later if I need to.

Figure it out: Figuring it out is of course the most time consuming of the Fs, but as we all know, sometimes we just have to figure it out for ourselves. Some things need research, some things need us to create a project, some things just require us to dive in and do it. I try to ask the question of when I need to figure it out by, so I can try to plan my day as well as possible.

Taking time to do the 4Fs allows me to do my favorite F, the fifth F:

Forget about it

at least while I move on to the next message.

[Phil Gerbyshak is a Help Desk manager who is always looking for ways to be more productive, and hopes that the tips he finds helpful are helpful for you as well. Please let him know your feedback by leaving a comment on this, or any other, article.]

Technorati Tags: email, e-mail, lifehack, manager, management

Comments

[Harold Shinsato]

Great article, the Klinger picture was a great attention grabber. The four F's, though not specifically stated, are a big part of David Allen's system. Keeping my inboxes regularly emptied has really moved me to a new level in my career, and the core advance that helped me do this was the critical piece of spending the necessary seconds to make a decision about what is the next action. Do it, delete it, file it for reference, and delegate are straight forward. If it'll take too long, I defer it -- but make sure I make a decision about what I'm going to do about it, and then attach it to the email.

[Buzzoodle Ron]

Do you also try to keep your Inbox empty? I try to, but it always builds back up.

[Rick Cockrum]

You said several thousand emails a day and I got this image of Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty when he was trying to answer the prayers by email. I'm awed that you get anything done.

[Nagesh Belludi]

Phil: Great article. Like possibly other people, I am not familiar with the character in the image on the top. What is the context?

An additional component of my email practice is as follows. (1) After reading an email, if I believe a reply will take less than a minute, I reply and file or delete the email. (2) If the reply involves collecting information or doing some work or a longer reply, then I hit the reply button and save the reply as a draft. I then file the original email. Whenever I am ready with the content or by the end of the day, I work on all the draft emails. These help me keep my inbox in order.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Nagesh (and anyone else curious) - the picture is Klinger from M.A.S.H., who wanted to get kicked out of the Army so he could leave the Korean War.

Also, great additional tips everyone. I'll have to definitely try some of these. Thanks for sharing them!

[Phil Gerbyshak]

And for Ron - Yes, I TRY to empty my inbox, but it never works. The best I can do is actually read the e-mail before the end of the day.