HANDLING EMAIL

You don’t want to get into the “shuffling blues” where you read an e-mail, postpone action, save it, re-read it later, and find things slipping through the cracks.

As you open each e-mail, do one of the following and be done:
a. If it requires a quick response, (it will only take a minute or two), respond to it and delete it.
b. If it requires a response but is not the best use of your time, try to think of a way of delegating it. There’s a lot of difference between “I do it” and “It gets done”.
c. If it is going to take any serious amount of time to respond (beyond a minute or two), schedule it for action in your Day Planner and then save it or print it out for future action.