Brad Marley

Picture pulled from koka_sexton’s photostream.

You often hear public relations professionals say that the best part about their job is the unpredictably they face when they step in the office.

True, our work is often hectic, with a side order of craziness sometimes thrown in for good measure. But I’ve never been one to revel in the chaos. I like order.

Which is why I’m always on the hunt for the best productivity tips and tricks. And I think I’m on to something.

It’s so brilliant that I can’t believe I never thought of it before. (Although, to be fair, I kind of stole the general idea from a colleague of mine. I hope she doesn’t seek royalties.)

Essentially, every night before I leave the office, I update my tasks list in Microsoft Outlook, then print out the next calendar day, which conveniently holds my meetings on the left-hand side of the piece of paper and my tasks on the right-hand side. I leave it on my keyboard so that it’s the first thing I see when I arrive the next morning.

Instead of sifting through my e-mail to remember what’s pressing, it’s all there right in front of me. Plus, I think there is a psychological benefit that comes with physically crossing items off of your to-do list.

It’s only been a few days, but I’m already seeing a difference.

Since I’m kind of a productivity geek, I’m curious: how do you schedule your day?

If you're like me, your stress level is in direct proportion to the number of e-mail that floods your inbox.

The higher that number gets, the more my heart palpitates and hands sweat, and the more I start to feel like I am being crushed beneath a pile of digital correspondence.  

So when my client told me on a call last week that he received 2,000 in the span of one weekend to an already jam-packed inbox (he has 52,000), I nearly had a heart attack.

(Now, before I proceed, I want the reader to know that there are a number of avenues I could go down with this information, not the least of which would be an indictment on the way we, as an industry, operate, turning number of e-mail into some sort of PR badge of honor. But you know what? I'm not going to go there.)

Think about that: if even five percent of those e-mail were action worthy, and assuming he isn't working on the weekend, he comes into the office on Monday already a day behind because he has to catch up. Soon, he's spending his weekends also getting caught up, which leads to a seven day work week, which leads to a build up of stress levels, which then leads to early death.

Obviously, the moral of this story is that e-mail can kill you.

That leads to this question, which you are already asking yourself: how can we change this practice?

Short answer: we can't. At least not industry-wide.

The problem is that e-mail is too easy. Anybody and everybody can easily fire out 300 e-mail in a day, if they so choose, with no regard for the receiver's well-being. And, the higher the number, the more work they think they've done.  But, really, they are just adding to the clutter.

Unfortunately, there are no rules and regulations in place to hinder somebody's e-mail usage, short of charging for virtual postage, which will never happen. We are slowly being programmed to become e-mail sending machines intent on burying one another beneath this pile of eRubbish that, after time, becomes impossible to dig out from under; our correspondence becomes matters of quantity, not quality.

But we can, however, change our personal habits, which just might lead to somebody else changing their habits, which leads to another person, and so on. We're not changing the world, but we might help somebody get home in time to build a snowman with their kid, and that's got to count for something. Okay, now I'm rambling. Let's move on.

In the spirit of better productivity, I want to share six tips loosely based on the "Take Back Your Life!" strategythat I implement regularly to create a healthy inbox.

Step One: Commit

If you're going to clean out your inbox — and I mean give it an honest-to-goodness cleaning — you have to commit the time. Probably on a weekend. I KNOW. That flies in the face of every productivity rule in the book, but trust me when I say this is a necessary evil. 

If you have 1,000 e-mail to go through, I'd block off 1-2 hours. 2,000 e-mail? 2-3. You get the picture. If you have more than 10,000? Cancel your plans.

Step Two: Plan

Once you have committed yourself to this Herculean task, you need to come up with a system for filing your e-mail. Personally, I create folders for each of my main clients, then create subfolders named after projects. Above all else, these folders must be established before you dive in.

Step Three: Delete

Now comes the fun part: deleting the obvious junk. The quickest way to remove useless e-mail is to group by sender. You will be amazed at how many newsletters you subscribe to, but never read. I'm not kidding when I say you wouldn't miss 90 percent of your e-mail if it disappeared overnight. Grouping is a quick way to identify what needs to go. Believe me, you'll know.

Step Four: Critique

The one point I want to stress during this step is do not be afraid. Really give the e-mail a critical eye. Chances are high that if it's older than two weeks and you haven't referred to it in a span of two weeks, you can delete it. Go ahead. Click the 'delete' button. There. Don't you feel better? Under no circumstances do I want you to keep it because you "might need it someday." That is why inboxes are overflowing and IT departments are pulling out their hair. Of course, if it's a fit for one of those folders you created, move it! At least it's out of your inbox. If there is an implied action, leave it. We'll cover those in step five.

Step Five: Act

Now that the e-mail that must be deleted is gone (you're amazed at just how much junk you had in your inbox, aren't you?) you're left with the mail that contains an action, whether that be a response to your client, or an article that needs writing. What you do with these is up to you, but I like to keep a list of what I need to do, and I try not to get ahead of myself by peeking to see what e-mail has come through while I'm acting on another. That's a surefire way to get behind. (Try to ignore those red exclamation marks.  At this point, they're starting to resemble the boy who cried "Wolf!".) Again. I try not to do anything else until that mini-project is done, and that includes checking my e-mail.

Step Six: Repeat

The kicker, here, is that this isn't a one-time deal. In order to keep your inbox spotless, you have to set aside time on a regular basis — daily, weekly, monthly — to go through the incoming e-mail and either act on it, file it, or delete it. I try to do it daily, but that rarely works. I admit that I need to get better about my e-mail hygiene. Find a schedule that works well for you, and stick to it.

***

I am a firm believer that e-mail should function less as a way to correspond at lightning speed, and more as a way to deliver value to the people on the other end.  They are much happier when you send them a completed project than they are with a myriad of questions. When we fall into rapid-fire e-mail habits, everybody loses.

Therefore, imagine every e-mail you write is a handwritten letter. The care in which you draft the copy should spur others into a desired action without them feeling the need to follow up with more questions. That's a prescription for more e-mail.

Finally, pretend that every e-mail in your inbox is an actual letter cluttering your desk.

What kind of state of mind would you be in if you came to work every day to find your workspace overflowing with letters?

You're probably so used to a hectic inbox that you have no idea what it feels like to have an organized central point of command that allows you to actually get work done.

I suggest you try it.

Photo courtesy of Dan Paluska's photostream.

Being busy at work is definitely a good thing.

But there are days where the number of Post-it notes scattered on my desk is in direct correlation with the scattering of tasks in my brain. I find it ironic that we live in such a tech-infused world, yet we rely on such a non-techy item as those little yellow pads.

Obviously, my organization system is broken, so I need a new one.

That's where you guys come in.

I'm in search of a system (or some tips) that will allow me to work smart and effectively in an e-mail driven field, and also get organized so that I'm focusing on the big bets and not getting lost in the small stuff.

If you faced the same problem and beat it down to a bloody pulp, what techniques did you use?

I want to pick your brains. Virtually, of course.

The difference between the way I feel now, as opposed to how I felt when I was 29, is negligible.

But since I'm a human being, I tend to use monumental occasions as guideposts for my life, and turning 30 has made me reflect on what I've done and provides a good place to restart my engine.

In the spirit of making my 30's different from my 20's, here are five things I aim to do now that I have reached the fourth decade of life.