Ep 189. Book Club: The Happy Inbox by Maura Thomas

October 19, 2023

Summary:

Today's episode is a book club review of "The Happy Inbox" by Maura Neville Thomas, a part of the Ignite Reads series.
The book emphasizes the significance of effective email management in achieving productivity and reducing overwhelm.
Email is not merely a to-do list but a communication tool that requires specific strategies to handle efficiently.

Key Takeaways from "The Happy Inbox":

Understanding the Challenges of Email:
- Email overload leads to a constant state of overwhelm and reactive behavior, hindering proactive productivity.
- Email inundation can lead to a loss of control and even anxiety.
Categorizing Incoming Email:
- Categories include spam, unwanted robo mail, wanted robo mail, and actionable work emails.
- Managing each category effectively can significantly reduce the volume of email traffic.
Strategies for Email Management:
- Implementing the TEST process (Take immediate action, Empower others and yourself, Suspend for later, Trash) to handle each email efficiently.
- Applying the Ohio principle (Only Handle It Once) to minimize time spent on reviewing and processing emails.
Declaring Email Bankruptcy:
- Tips for declaring bankruptcy include filtering emails by date, archiving or moving older emails to separate folders, and focusing on recent correspondence.
Other Tips and Best Practices:
- Avoiding the habit of marking emails requiring action as unread or leaving the email open and visible constantly.
- Addressing issues of "thread jumping" by adjusting the subject line when switching topics within an email thread.

Conclusion:

Reminding listeners to prioritize effective email management and providing resources for further guidance.
Encouraging audiences to join the Bold Goal Crusher Book Club and participate in live sessions for more insights.

Outro:

Encouraging listeners to crush their goals and improve productivity, ending with the signature sign-off, "Let's get to it."

Connect with Sara Mayer:

Instagram @saramayerconsulting

Facebook @saracmayerconsulting

LinkedIn @saramayerconsulting

Episode Transcript

Ep 189 Book Club: The Happy Inbox by Maura Thomas

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[00:00:00] Welcome to the bold goal crusher podcast for anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.

Hello, bold goal crushers. Today is one of my favorite episodes. It's a book club episode. And in this episode, we are reviewing the book, the happy inbox by Maura Neville Thomas. So if you haven't jumped into this book, it's okay. The purpose of these book club episodes is to do a summary. And I always love the books that are produced by Ignite.

Reads they're designed to be a one hour read. [00:01:00] I will tell you this book for me was not a one hour read because there were a lot of actions that I needed to do to go along with the book. And we talk all about goals and how to get things done and crush everything that gets in our way. And many times what's getting in our way.

Is email and if you don't find a way to handle and process all the information coming in via email, being via notifications via all the things you will be in a constant state of overwhelm. And so I think that's why it's really important that we. Figure out a way to manage our email. So I'm going to jump into a couple of things.

First off, they, she does a great job in this book. They always do a great job in these little series of making the topic very manageable and easy to do. And one of the things is that. [00:02:00] It's all about getting your email under control, but it's also, it's not just about having a zero inbox. In fact, we're going to talk about that.

It's not just about that. It's really about being moving from a state of being reactive to being more responsive. So instead of reacting to everything that's going on to being proactive, and I think that many times there's this. idea that our email box is a to do list and it's not, it's a communication tool, but there are a lot of things that we need to do in our email.

And so I think it's important that we learn how to deal with it. So first off in her first book, the empowered productivity systems, she talks about. How to become more productive and this is [00:03:00] one part of it is managing email. And as she says in her book, the biggest productivity hurdle today might just be communication.

Our crazy inboxes are constant phone notifications. And I couldn't agree more. I think that is one of the biggest hurdles that we have as a people are. Is that there are so many ways that people can get in touch with us, but that doesn't always mean that we know how to handle those things. So what happens when we are constantly on and constantly checking in this quest to get to zero notifications or zero inboxes?

We are. Really giving up control because everybody else's priorities are in those notifications in those emails and you've heard me say that before and we lose control, but we also don't have the opportunity to be intentional [00:04:00] and basically in the book, she talks about it's that feeling that you're always.

needing to return a communication to someone, or you have to get back to someone, or you need to do something. And it's that sense of anxiety that may raise up when you start to think about all the things that you need to do or communicate. And in reality, there's only so much time in the day. And so when we put these things off and we let them clog up our head, or we don't have a way to effectively process all the information coming at us.

That's what leads to overwhelm, burn, eventually burnout, and just this feeling of no control. And for some people, some true anxiety and and maybe even retreat because. They might not even want to deal with it. So let's talk about email, one of my favorite [00:05:00] topics. So it hits us at all fronts. So too many of the messages that we get are like really unimportant.

And sometimes those unimportant messages steal our time and steal our focus. And then email is always constant. It continues to keep coming. So you can have a zero inbox. right now. And then in five minutes, you will not have a Xero inbox. So it's the hurdle of always trying to get to Xero. Now I will tell you, Xero may not be the goal for you and that's okay.

And Email frequently takes on putting tasks that are other people's priorities in front of you. So you end up dealing that with that first. So first of all, let's just start off by reminding you that email is. An inbox for receiving emails. [00:06:00] It is not a to do list. It is a communication tool. It is not for your inbox is not for storing email.

And that's where many of us go wrong. We store our emails. In the inbox or we scroll through them and read through them, but we don't actually manage them. So this is what it's like when you store your inbox. So you read the message as it came in, or you scrolled through it. It, you may have identified, you don't want it.

Deal with that email, but you didn't delete it. You just left it in there. And then if it doesn't require a reply, you might've just left it in your inbox. And then you skipped and skimmed it. And so if that's how you're dealing with your email, if it's just. All different things in there, you likely feel overwhelmed and I love in the book, she says, there's a better way.

[00:07:00] And the first step is recognizing that storing all the messages in your inbox, read unread, not requiring action, maybe requiring action and definitely requiring action is a big part of the problem. So that's the big one. And she has several recommendations for how to deal with email. One of the reasons that people get in this is that they don't filter things.

They put everything in the inbox and then magically they expect to have time to actually go through and process them. And unfortunately we know that doesn't always happen. So the email that we receive Outlined in the book, falls into four categories. So the first one is spam, pure out spam. And I have looked at my spam lately cause I worked this book.

So I actually did some of the actions and there are some really nasty messages in my spam. And then there's unwanted robo mail. So this [00:08:00] may be mass emails set, sent via a marketing service, but the key word is their keyword there is unwanted. Okay. Then there's wanted robo mail. So you might've signed up to somebody's list, maybe my list and you want it, but you're not sure what to do with it.

You're not going to read it now, but you do want that email. So that's category number three. I hope that I'm on your wanted robo email. It's not really robo. I do use a service. I guess it is robo. And then number four is. Work or real messages from individual people addressed specifically to you that you actually need to do read process or do something with.

And so what happens is when all four of these categories are hitting the inbox, you have to make decisions on each email to figure out what to do. So you I'm sure for spam, you know what spam is, and you know that it needs to just be deleted or [00:09:00] removed. And there's several ways that you can do this. So marking things as spam is really helpful.

Unsubscribing to those is also really helpful. Blocking those senders is helpful because the goal here. Is to stop getting the stuff that's cluttering your email box. It's if you went to the beach and you were like sitting on the beach and you're like, I need to find the seashell. I don't know where it is.

You're sifting through all this stuff to get to the actual prize. And while the shell may come to the top, you still have a lot of sifting to do and it takes time. And then by the time you find the shell, you might not be as excited. Now, unwanted robo mail. These are marketing messages. And maybe they are things that you signed up for, didn't sign up for, but you don't want them anymore.

So technically reputable companies shouldn't send you marketing messages [00:10:00] without permission, but sometimes you end up on a list somehow, or you bought something and you end up on a list. And I'm sure you get plenty of these messages. And the question to ask about unwanted is, do you really want this in your box?

So I always love to use the example of Bed Bath Beyond or Michaels. I don't, it doesn't matter which one you shop at, or you might not shop at either of those stores. But here's the example. They send a lot of coupons. Some of them are like 5 off. Some of them are like cash coupons. Some of them are like 25 off, whatever.

I don't always shop at those stores, but when I do shop at those stores, I want their coupons. And so they are not unwanted email. They are actually wanted messages, and they are going to go in a different category. So that's how you can decide if this marketing message is unwanted. So click [00:11:00] the unsubscribe button.

Use an unsubscribed service. There are services that you can use to get those unsubscribed from. And then you can also create a rule in your email application. So any email messages coming from a specific email address or domain like at XYZ company will automatically go to trash. They'll even skip the inbox.

That's awesome. So there's a couple unsubscribed services that you could try and, and use as well. But I think the one thing is when you identify spam, get rid of it right away. And when you identify an unwanted marketing message, handle it so that it goes right to the box you want it to go to.

Now there are wanted robo emails. And that's like the bed, bath and beyond for me. So for example, they're similar to the prior category, but you [00:12:00] actually do want them. So they could be newsletters. You enjoy reading my emails, but you might not do something with them every single time. So the tech technique for handling these messages.

is to divert them from your primary email box to a place where you can review at your convenience. So it could be a reading folder, or for example, with my Michaels coupons, I put them into a folder called Michaels. And when I go to the store, I simply go into that folder and find the most recent coupon and then.

Use it. So you can create rules for these messages so that they are going where you want them to go. Then the key is to actually go and review those on a regular basis so that because you do want these that you are consuming the information and you're not missing out on timely things like that big Michael sale every holiday or whatever.[00:13:00]

All right. So the last one is your, the things you actually need to do, your work emails, the things are sent to you. And these typically are messages from coworkers, clients, friends, and we'll just put them all in the work category or the to do category. And you want to reduce the volume of email with the first three categories.

And this one, when you are able to actually. Do those tactics on the first three categories, you may find that you're able to reduce the amount of email you get to like by 70%. So some people even more. So the reason that you may get buried in your email is because you try and manage your email around stuff like, Oh, I'll check my email when I have a little break.

I'll check my email at the beginning of the day before my first meeting. The fact is, [00:14:00] email really is the work that takes time and you need to figure out how to actually work those emails. So your email's full, as of actions you need to take. Now, Not everything you have to do comes from email.

And so that's why we want to remember that your email is not a to do list. You need a place to capture what you need to do. Otherwise you'll have to do is on post it notes on your wall to dues in your email to dues on your notes, pad on your phone to dues in a planner. And that's not an effective way to work.

So it's if everybody was trying to, at a restaurant dine at the same at different tables and they're all eating different food. And some of the food isn't even on the menu and you're trying to serve it. So it's really hard to keep track of. So the empowered productivity system helps you manage.

[00:15:00] Your actions with your email. So let's talk about a couple of things. You do obviously have a responsibility to respond to the stuff that's in your email. If it's work related, friend related, you need to get back to people. We all know that, but there's a difference between being reactive and being responsive.

So some people think that they need to respond. Right away. I need to respond right away. And the reality is that email is not a synchronous communication tool. It's not like you're going, having a conversation with somebody. And so I think it's really important to remember that because people don't expect to get a response like right away.

If they wanted a response right away, they probably actually would call you. I know that's ancient, but so the things that you really shouldn't do with email is that making email [00:16:00] emails, like responding so quickly, it actually, I'll tell you a little story when I used to work at a place and. I had a girl who would respond all the time, 24, almost 24 hours a day in the middle of the night, she would respond.

And so people started going to her cause they knew they could get a response very quickly and they bypass other people. And she was getting really frustrated. Why do people always come to me? How come they don't go to their person, all this stuff. And the reason was she was so responsive. People also thought she didn't have a life and she really didn't have a life because she was always responding.

So you don't need to always respond. So here are a couple tips from the book that they suggest you don't do. So the first one is marking emails that require action as unread or with flags so that you come back to it later. It's really not efficient to read [00:17:00] emails more than once. So don't do that. The other one is exciting, assigning categories to the messages in your box.

It takes a lot of time. You don't need to do that. The other one is leaving your email open and visible. So each new message calls your attention or having notifications where it like dings when you get an email, I wear a Fitbit, some people wear a smartwatch and they'll get their emails on their watch.

So distracting takes you out of focus. And the problem with these things is they make it necessary for you to check your task list, your inbox, to get the full picture of everything that's going on. And. It causes you to read it, clog it in your head, and then constantly worry about whether you did that or got back to that person or not.

So here's how you might review with email. If you are checking your email, on a regular [00:18:00] basis during the day or constantly, it's going to be hard to break that habit. And so only you can really decide how to do it. But reviewing your email over and rereading everything is inefficient. You really should set aside time to review your email, not doing it while you're doing certain tasks.

So set some time to work, but don't be in your email going back and forth. Has anybody, have you ever had this happen to you where you're like working on something and you're like, Oh, that's in my email? Here's where you get tricked. And then you go in your email and you're like, Oh, Michael's is having a sale.

Oh, Bob needs this report. Oh, I got this newsletter from this person. And you still haven't found what you went to your email for. So that's why we shouldn't store things in our email. You can use a system like I use a sauna to take things out of your email. But working and it being in your email is not effective.

So if you actually [00:19:00] set times to deal with your email, that's a great way. And then you can remove the temptation to get in your inbox by simply closing it when you're working. All right. The next tip is don't get stuck in review mode. Review mode should be part of how you handle email, but it can't be the only thing you do.

If you never go back and act on those messages, you've lost thousands of hours in the black hole. So here's a tip from the book, and I'll share my tip as well. So her tip is Processing email done for now. Processing doesn't require that you complete all the tasks associated with your email messages, only that you dealt with each message to the point it's not hanging around as an unknown that causes you stress.

When you process your email, you make the decisions you need to get each email out of your box. And I love that. [00:20:00] That's a great way done for now. And I will tell you... that she uses a process called T E S T. So the test process with an extra S. And here's her overview. Take immediate action on the email.

Empower others and yourself. So maybe delegate, suspend it to your task list to take the action later, store it for future reference or trash it. And so for every email you would put it through that process. Is this something I need to take future action? Add it to my to do list. Is this something that I can empower others by delegation?

Delegate it. Is this something I need to store for future reference? Store it. Is it something I can just trash? Trash it. And so it's about taking that immediate action on the email or doing something with it or putting it to somewhere else so that you can capture when you need to [00:21:00] do it. I like to use the acronym Ohio Only Handle It.

Once right? Yeah, Ohio. And so that's really about asking in each email. If I can handle this in five minutes or less, I do it right then. If I can't, then I'm going to handle that email. I'm going to put it on my to do list. If it's a spam, I'm going to unsubscribe right then. So I think it's really important for you to come up with what your process is for email and Recognize that sometimes you're going to need a fresh start.

So there is this once you start trying to get emails from even coming to your box in the first place, and once you create that process, it's important to realize that you may be in overwhelm right now. I worked with a client who had 25, 000 emails. Yeah. 25, 000 unread. Sorry. Unread.

She had more emails than that, but 25, [00:22:00] 000 were unread. So I think one of the things that's super important is if you do need a fresh start, you can declare email bankruptcy and there's several ways to do this. Now some of you are already getting anxiety because you think I'm going to tell you to delete your emails and I'm not, but I am going to tell you to go into your email server, go into your box.

And filter it by date and then anything older than a month, take it, move it to a folder called bankruptcy, put the date on it and it's still there. It's still searchable or just archive that and get it out of there and then handle the last month's worth of email. That's a great place to start. It's a great way to get going and it helps you to not be overwhelmed.

Another great way to do this is to group it by sender. And so if you group it by sender, you may find chunks of sender's [00:23:00] emails that you may be able to delete or file quickly. It does take a little bit longer. If you have 25, 000, just declare bankruptcy. Save yourself some time. Now, there's a couple of tips in here that I...

I'm so excited that she mentioned so many of us have our emails and what's called threads or we just have emails individually hitting our box, but we get an email about a subject. So it could be like action steps from the meeting, and then it says, in the body, we agreed to the following people would do the following things and then somebody responds, to that, and they say, okay, I'm working on this. And then somebody responds, thank you so much. Where should I put the files? And those are all related to the initial message. But then you have that one person who remember the subject was action steps from the meeting. The one person who sends an email, the subject still is [00:24:00] reason.

Action steps from the meeting and they say, thank you. I also wanted to let you know that I spoke with a customer regarding an issue unrelated to this, and they shared with me this. And that's called jumping the thread. So you have somebody bringing a topic that is unrelated to this thread and leaving the subject as it is.

So bringing up a issue, totally unrelated. So what really needs to happen with that is. If you see that when you reply to that, you need to change the subject because that allows people to know that you've shifted conversations. It's just like a transitional sentence. If you were talking in person, you'd be like follow up to the meeting is we're going to do this, and this, and then you would do a transition.

I also would like to speak with you regarding this customer. Letting the person [00:25:00] listening. No, we're changing conversations. Whereas other people who are on that thread who still see the subject the same and they know what they need to do for the action may not even notice that somebody is bringing up a different issue and they may not pay attention because they've already addressed the initial issue.

So just so you know. Don't jump the thread. That's a great tip in this book and I see it so often. But if you see somebody jump the thread, we don't need to attack them. Just reply and change the subject. There you go. All right. There's a couple of things that she also talks about in the book that have to do with other tools like social media notifications and stuff like that.

And I think it's really important to go back to the beginning. Great book, by the way. Definitely read it. I think it's important to go back to the beginning and remember that email is not a communicate, [00:26:00] is a communication tool. It's not a to do list. So you need to find a way to handle all your incoming to dos.

You. If you're watching on YouTube, you probably see here. I have my planner right here and I have my list and that's where I take things from my email. I put it on my list. I also use a sauna because I have a team and we have a lot of stuff going on. And so I will take things from email and put them into a sauna.

And that's where I put shared files, links, comments, thoughts, and everything like that. And that's a great way to capture the things that are hitting my email box. So I love the book club. books, especially the podcast. If you haven't joined the bold goal crusher book club, please join us at sarahmayer.

com slash join book club. And then you can also see all the books we're reading at sarahmayer. com slash book club. Once you've joined you'll. Figure that [00:27:00] piece out and we do meet once a month. I'd love to have you on the next live session for the book review. This next live session, we are going to jump into some tech ways that you can easily clean your email and I'm going to do a little series.

Of that on YouTube. All right, everyone is time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way. So you do not have to work double time and that includes crushing and getting rid of your email. So let's get to it.

Thank you for tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.

I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.

Ep 189. Book Club: The Happy Inbox by Maura Thomas

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