Emails Requiring Longer to Figure Out Next Action

[TruthWK]

I am processing my email inbox down to zero. I had an email come in this morning at work requiring action. It is not something I can figure out in 2 minutes to put a proper next action. My inclination is to create project for what I know the end result is and to make the next action to carefully read the email and follow corresponding links. For work I am only working with a single next actions list as I usually don't have enough actions that aren't just @computer to justify splitting it up. However, in broader context this seems like it might go on a digital version of a read/review list maybe?

My main question, though, is whether this seems like a good practice to put emails and maybe even other inbox items that require longer thought to determine a true next action on a read/review or general next actions list and create a project for them since they would now definitely be more than 1 action step to complete? My thought is I don't want to get bogged down diving too deep into any one item when processing so if a next action doesn't jump out at me that I can have a placeholder to review it in its own dedicated time.

Wanted to see what others think.

 

[vaughan76]

I don’t know if this is canonical GTD, but often in that situation I have an email folder called “action” that I dump those into. It lets me clear out the main inbox quickly. I treat that as one of my main inboxes that I need to empty ASAP. I tried putting those sorts of things on my main list and it didn’t work. Easier to just put it in its own bucket and work thru.

 

[mcogilvie]

I am processing my email inbox down to zero. I had an email come in this morning at work requiring action. It is not something I can figure out in 2 minutes to put a proper next action. My inclination is to create project for what I know the end result is and to make the next action to carefully read the email and follow corresponding links. For work I am only working with a single next actions list as I usually don't have enough actions that aren't just @computer to justify splitting it up. However, in broader context this seems like it might go on a digital version of a read/review list maybe?

My main question, though, is whether this seems like a good practice to put emails and maybe even other inbox items that require longer thought to determine a true next action on a read/review or general next actions list and create a project for them since they would now definitely be more than 1 action step to complete? My thought is I don't want to get bogged down diving too deep into any one item when processing so if a next action doesn't jump out at me that I can have a placeholder to review it in its own dedicated time.

Wanted to see what others think.

I think it’s helpful to separate best practices from implementation. You have an email you need to review carefully, so it belongs on an appropriate list. Say it is @Computer or @Email. I would not put in in a read/review list because for most people, that is a large, low-priority bucket. Making a project for it now is optional, because if I need to, I will do so when I do the action of reviewing the email. Minimum bogged-downedness.

 

[Gardener]

I agree that read/review sounds too comfortably low-priority--if you mainly trigger your work by context, it could be too long before you get to that context, and even longer before you tunnel your way down to that particular action.

How I would handle this would depend to some extent on how often the issue comes up.

If, let's say, it's an ad hoc information gathering task for my manager, and that sort of thing only rarely happens, I'd probably go ahead and give it a project and make the first action something like, "Review/Analyze email from Bob 5/3/18".

On the other hand, if I'm in charge of the developer team for an application and I get several bug reports a day, each of which require analysis and translation into categories of work...

(Categories of work: "Oh, my God! Payroll's gonna break!" versus, "Yeah, just don't paste 500K of text into a Date field next time, OK? We'll get to it when we get to it," versus, "It's working fine, it's just a confusing interface, our apologies. Please refer to section 3.12a of the manual.")

...then I'll probably have some sort of post-inbox inbox where I dump those things, and a regularly scheduled task for doing that translation-into-work, separate from the regularly scheduled weekly review task. I would make it separate because the translation-into-work would benefit from an absorption in the details of that specific application, while a weekly review is likely to bounce me rapidly from topic to topic.

 

[kelstarrising]

If it’s more like 5-8 minutes to figure it out, I’ll sometimes take the time to do it right then and break the 2 minute rule. If it’s longer that that, I’ll actually make clarifying/dissecting the email the next action on my calendar or @computer list.

 

[ssksogaard]

Maybe it’s me, but haven’t we mixed the terms a bit?

In my world the 2-min-rule applies after I’ve clarified what the next action is. Want to do all my thinking in one sitting, so thats left is Do’s..
Some actions take 1 min to clarify and others 15 min, and after 15 min I might be left with a 2-min action and do it on the spot..
Also it’s possible to make it a next action to review that mail, if the inbox-2-zero time is limited, but try to have as few of these..

 

[Oogiem]

In my world the 2-min-rule applies after I’ve clarified what the next action is.

I use the same general rule. Sometimes even figuring out whether something is actionable can take a while, especially e-mails. I think my longest was it took 30 minutes to figure out if I had to respond to a link our ditch rider sent out to all the Ditch Board Members. Reason is water is so critical and it looked like it was being taken via a lawsuit. Ferreting out whether our ditch was involved took a bit of digging but had to be done right then as the deadlines for opposition filings were coming up fast. But I didn't even know about the dates of the required filings until I had dug into the link and all the related documents. Turns out it was important and became a project with a bunch of actions. If I had waited to figure out whether I had to do anything by just kicking the "process e-mail inbox to zero" can down the road we could have lost our water.

 

[TruthWK]

I think I'm gonna try to stick to moving it to a Read/Review folder in Outlook for now. I don't put anything into this that is specifically low priority. I want to not get stuck processing email for forever and when I let myself deep dive into an email, it makes processing things more daunting to me. I'm still testing though. As for the 2 minute rule, David Allen says somewhere in the book that you can increase or decrease the 2 minutes depending on how much free time you have.

 

[JacDee]

My reality is that some emails have attachments that require time to reade, digest and determine next actions. In order to get to inbox zero I move these into a “to be processed” list. Then I sit down and process them once my inbox is cleared of the quicker items. The only challenge is that I don’t leave enough time in my calendar to do the processing.

 

[TruthWK]

So I had a further thought on this today. I know that GTD is item agnostic in that everything should get processed one at a time without cherry picking the most desirable items. However, GTD does allow for the reality of multiple inboxes. Usually these are due to certain things being better left where they are e.g. Email, physical objects, voicemails. However, I'm considering trying out a special inbox for longer form items like meeting notes or long emails. Rather than thinking of this as a Read/Review type list, I think it may make sense to just consider this another inbox calling it something like Long Form Inbox. The idea would be that it should get emptied as regularly as the other inboxes but that I know it may take a higher level of energy to really process through longer stuff. On the other hand, a Read/Review list could leave things sitting in it for months. So this is really just changing the name of the list and how I think about it. Thoughts?

 

[mcogilvie]

So I had a further thought on this today. I know that GTD is item agnostic in that everything should get processed one at a time without cherry picking the most desirable items. However, GTD does allow for the reality of multiple inboxes. Usually these are due to certain things being better left where they are e.g. Email, physical objects, voicemails. However, I'm considering trying out a special inbox for longer form items like meeting notes or long emails. Rather than thinking of this as a Read/Review type list, I think it may make sense to just consider this another inbox calling it something like Long Form Inbox. The idea would be that it should get emptied as regularly as the other inboxes but that I know it may take a higher level of energy to really process through longer stuff. On the other hand, a Read/Review list could leave things sitting in it for months. So this is really just changing the name of the list and how I think about it. Thoughts?

I don’t think this would work for me. I use the inbox of whatever app I’m using (Things or OmniFocus) so email goes in there with a link back to the original email. So adding an email folder called "inbox for harder stuff" would be just adding an opportunity for avoidance and procrastination.

 

[TruthWK]

I should make a distinction that this is for longer items not harder. The goal isn't to avoid them but batch the short items to not get stuck in the weeds on one thing.

 

[Ravine61]

“My reality is that some emails have attachments that require time to reade, digest and determine next actions. In order to get to inbox zero I move these into a “to be processed” list. Then I sit down and process them once my inbox is cleared of the quicker items. The only challenge is that I don’t leave enough time in my calendar to do the processing.“

I process similarly to how JacDee does. I try to stick to the 2 minute rule...if something looks like it is going to take me longer to process (and/or has attachments I need to review), I place it in my OmniFocus InBox.

I am fanatical about keeping that InBox empty, so I know I will get to it fairly quickly. And as JacDee points out, it’s sometimes tough to make the time to do that type of processing!