Snooze your email

If you wake up each morning to the sound of your email’s overflowing inbox, then the first thing you need to do is set it free

Before I even get into the topic of email clients in general and email snoozing in particular, I’d like to make one thing perfectly clear: Nothing is going to help you with your “email situation” if you have 3,433 emails in your inbox, 2,456 of which are unread and date from the summer of 2004. If that is the case…then I am afraid there is nothing I can do to help you. There is no app, no software, no logic, no technique, and no “lifehack” that can possibly help you manage your inbox.

Everything you read in this week’s Untangler is dependent on you having a semblance of control over your email situation. So if you wake up each morning to the sound of your overflowing inbox laughing in your face with an assortment of beeps and whistles, then the first thing you need to do is set it free. Clean it up.

Now promise me you’ll never let your inbox tumble out of control again. Good.

So onwards to email clients. This week I’d like to focus on just one particular type of email client: the type that allows you to snooze email. Which means that they allow you to temporarily make emails go away only to return them at a future date when you are ready to deal with them. Popular examples of such clients are Mailbox and the new Outlook app by Microsoft. You can also use apps or services such as Boomerang or ReminderBaba.

All these apps allow you to deal with something that I hinted at above. If you have to keep your inbox clean, you have to keep processing messages and getting them out of sight. But what if you are not in a position to respond to something right away? Wouldn’t letting the email just linger in your inbox violate our agreement?

Yes it would. Which is where the snoozing comes in.

For instance, someone tells you to give them a ring the next time you are in New Delhi. You expect to be in New Delhi around Christmas, and promise to drop a line. And then snooze the email till 10am on 23 December. Poof! The email has vanished. Only to reappear exactly in time for you to confirm your trip and make that call.

This way you can keep clearing away messages with mid- and long-term goals with the reassurance that the messages will come back when you need them.

But wait a minute. How is this different from just entering things into a calendar?

Good question. For me, this is a matter of personal taste. I only like to put things in a calendar if it involves physically making sure I am somewhere—driving lessons—or having to do something within a particular time window—visa interview or tax returns.

I deeply dislike clogging up my calendar with little reminders and to-dos. With an app like Mailbox, I relegate much of that to my email inbox.

I’ve been using Mailbox for months—on my phone and Mac desktop—and it has changed my life. The ability to snooze emails mean that you eventually develop a good sense of priorities. Alumni association updates? Snoozed to Sunday morning. Clarification email from marketing? Maybe 4pm tomorrow. And so on.

Also, having no more than 10-20 emails in your inbox is a real stress reliever. It gives you a sense of calm and control. I’ve also felt that it allows you to focus on your email one at a time (ever had that moment when you’re reading one message but already pre-emptively worrying about the next?).

The real trick, and this can take a while to perfect, is to snooze smartly. Don’t be tempted to take a whole bunch and hit “Tomorrow Morning”. You’ll soon end up in a snooze loop, pushing away difficult emails indefinitely. Instead, be ruthless with your processing.

Can I do it now? Do it.

Do it later? Snooze.

Don’t care? Delete.

You’ll soon realize that keeping a clean inbox is not only a good work and life habit, but also good for the soul and the mind. Procrastinate wisely.

Source | Mint – The Wall Street Journal | 14 July 2015