Email is a productivity thief. If I could take the familiar passage from the Bible about Satan being like a roaring lion and apply it to email, it would read something like…
“Be alert, have a plan! Your enemy, Email, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someones time and attention to devour.”
Seriously! Email kills productivity. I’m always working my plan for email and learning from others how to make it better. While reading Personal Productivity Secrets Do what you never thought possible with your time and attention… and regain control of your life by Maura Nevel Thomas, I was intrigued by her T.E.S.S.T.™ Process for dealing with paper and emails. Although it is similar to my process that you can read about in ZERO emails in your inbox?: How I get my Inbox to Zero and Keep it That Way, the process is excellent. Here are the building blocks of T.E.S.S.T.™ …
“Take immediate action” – Apply the “
“Empower yourself and others” — This is a much more inspirational way of saying delegate it to a person, or people who should do would be better to do the action required.
“Suspend” – If you don’t have all the data you need, don’t do anything until you do. You can add this to a next action to get the resources you need to determine if you or someone else should complete any work required.
“Store” – Any information you want to keep, but does not require action can be filed away in a trusted system where you can retrieve it when needed.
“Trash” – Any information you do not or will not need in the foreseeable future, DELETE. There are numerous ways that you can go about processing your email.
I think the T.E.S.S.T.™ process is a fresh and intelligent way of working through your inbox. I would also recommend you get the book Personal Productivity Secrets to read more about the T.E.S.S.T.™ process as well as other helpful productivity teachings on topics including; attention management, mastering your technology, and controlling communication. You can read more of my thoughts on email and how to take control of your inbox in my post: Process Email Like a Productive Pro!: Three Ways Conquer Your Inbox.
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