Weekly review is stalled by getting inbox to zero

JacDee

JacDee

0
I sat down at 10am this morning with two hours blocked to do a weekly review - but I have 215 unprocessed emails in my inbox! And they are all current i.e. received within the last 3 days. If I work to get my inbox to zero I am not going to get to the weekly review. Help!
 
The best advice I've heard was from a coach with the David Allen Company (I forget who) during a webinar, who suggested processing a bit of the backlog and then adding a next action to your lists for catching up on the rest so you can proceed with the review. The weekly review is not the best time to play catch-up on processing.

Two other things I do which help me: first, I try to get caught up on processing the night before I do a weekly review, and do the review early the next morning. That way I've got very little to do in the way of getting caught up on my inboxes. Second, I tend to do my weekly review on a Saturday or Sunday morning as my inboxes don't tend to fill up as quickly after 5 on Friday.

YMMV, but these are tricks that have helped me.
 
What's involved in processing the emails? Can you translate some or many of them into projects or project support material, rather than dealing with them in the moment?
 
WARNING! HERESY AHEAD!
If your inbox is full and it stops you from doing the Weekly Review pretend that the inbox is empty. Assume that all those emails "arrived just after your Weekly Review".
Of course "Get Clear" is an important step in the Weekly Review but the Weekly Review is more important than 200 emails. The Weekly Review gives us a total situation awareness while these emails are often only slight updates of our world.
 
TesTeq said:
WARNING! HERESY AHEAD!
If your inbox is full and it stops you from doing the Weekly Review pretend that the inbox is empty. Assume that all those emails "arrived just after your Weekly Review".
Of course "Get Clear" is an important step in the Weekly Review but the Weekly Review is more important than 200 emails. The Weekly Review gives us a total situation awareness while these emails are often only slight updates of our world.
Click to expand...

Yep. In fact, you could just drag the un-zeroed inbox contents to an "inbox backlog" folder and add, to your lists, a project/task of "Process inbox backlog." Those emails are now captured in your lists and you can put your mind at peace about them as you continue your review.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
The best advice I've heard was from a coach with the David Allen Company (I forget who) during a webinar, who suggested processing a bit of the backlog and then adding a next action to your lists for catching up on the rest so you can proceed with the review. The weekly review is not the best time to play catch-up on processing.
Click to expand...
You might be thinking of Meg Edwards in the GTD Weekly Review audio. She mentions a few case studies from her telecoaching where she guides clients through a one-hour Weekly Review despite their inbox backlog. She typically asks them, "How much time would you need to process your email to zero?" If they answer more than an hour, she asks them to find this time in their calendar—in addition to their daily email processing, not in place of it. Then, within the review, she has them do an emergency scan to make sure they're not missing anything mission critical; then she has them process some of their inbox for a few minutes; then they move on with the rest of the review. The important thing, as TesTeq emphasizes, is that the Weekly Review itself is the focus, not the content of what's being reviewed.
 
TesTeq said:
WARNING! HERESY AHEAD!
If your inbox is full and it stops you from doing the Weekly Review pretend that the inbox is empty. Assume that all those emails "arrived just after your Weekly Review".
Of course "Get Clear" is an important step in the Weekly Review but the Weekly Review is more important than 200 emails. The Weekly Review gives us a total situation awareness while these emails are often only slight updates of our world.
Click to expand...

That's a really good bit of advice mate. I was struggling with this for the last few weeks as I became kind of lazy with getting my inboxes to zero... Unfortunately allot of stuff built up in my inbox and I then spent several sundays (when i was supposed to be doing a weekly review) just trying to get in to zero. Like you said though, the weekly review should take priority and keeping that habit solid is far more important.

Thanks for that!
 
Just spent 90% of my Sunday getting my inbox to zero. No time for weekly review, although try to keep reviewing on the fly. Lack of time at work to make progress on lists due to meetings is pushing things over to my days off. And with no ability to back out of said meetings, I'm not sure how to break the cycle.
 
ggray50 said:
Just spent 90% of my Sunday getting my inbox to zero. No time for weekly review, although try to keep reviewing on the fly. Lack of time at work to make progress on lists due to meetings is pushing things over to my days off. And with no ability to back out of said meetings, I'm not sure how to break the cycle.
Click to expand...

I've been in the exact same place man.. My solution so far has been to do a scan of all my new inputs and process everything that is somewhat urgent... then take all other 'stuff', whatever format it is in and put it in a folder called BACKLOG. Use your system as best as possible so that you are continually building the habit of processing new inputs, making next actions and engaging with your system so that nothing sticks. If you dont keep building the habit doing those things, then your system will stagnate and then you will just end up with that huge backlog again.

Then when you get time free, process that BACKLOG folder. And keep doing a weekly review, so that you tie everything together and keep your working system fresh. As TesTeq mentioned above, do the weekly review, of current, actionable (and urgent) things first, then work on getting your inbox/backlog to zero

Maybe someone has got a better solution than that. But I had the exact same thing and this is the best solution that I could come up with.. Would love to get someone elses feedback on that!
 
Weekend - on call/working from home. Monday - meetings all day. Tuesday and Wednesday - days off from work/deal with some emails. Thursday return to work to face an inbox of circa 150+ emails. Thursday morning - project work. Thursday afternoon - mandatory meeting. Friday - staff appraisal until lunchtime. Friday afternoon - do some emails/project work. Saturday - day off/deal with some emails. Sunday - spend nearly all day catching up on emails (approx. 100)- don't get round to weekly review.

Finally get round to my weekly review today now that inbox is at zero - its a day off on annual leave as its my daughter's 21st, but hey, the work keeps on comin'...

PS Inbox now back up to 50, within hours of clearing it to zero...
 
Thanks for all your advise! I am currently at zero and hope to keep on top of it for a few days. I went to visit my son last week which was an 8 hour drive each way. Fortunately my husband drove which allowed me to wade through my emails. feeling much better since they are more organized now - still a long to do list.
 
ggray50 said:
PS Inbox now back up to 50, within hours of clearing it to zero...
Click to expand...
Once upon a time one of my subordinates decided to send me a daily market update. I said: "I appreciate your initiative but daily market updates are not our job. Please don't send me these emails." It worked!
Senders are the sources of our email overwhelm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top