Autofocus: Simplifying E-Mail, Doing It Tomorrow, and Workflow Checklist

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I feel I’m much more productive and getting more of a sense of satisfaction by leaving all of my non-emergency tasks until tomorrow. It has freed up time for me to dig into some big projects and gives me a good time buffer in case an unscheduled emergency task pops up during the current day. (Thanks to what I'm learning from the book Do It Tomorrow!)

I now am down to just three e-mail inbox subfolders in Outlook: _Today, _Tomorrow, and Archive. As I deal with e-mail only two or three times a day, if something is a genuine drop-everything emergency, it goes into my _Today folder to begin work on it within a few minutes. Otherwise, it goes into my _Tomorrow folder if otherwise actionable, or into my Archive folder if non-actionable but I want to keep it for further reference. (Or of course just delete it if none of the above!) Each morning, I move everything from my _Tomorrow folder into my _Today folder and then start working through my _Today folder. It’s a very simple process, requires no complicated setup, gives me a suitable time buffer to handle incoming emergencies, and helps me from feeling overwhelmed with tasks.

At work, I create Outlook tasks out of my e-mails as I process them out of my _Today folder (provided the task can’t be accomplished within a few minutes). My Autofocus list now consists of a combination of my Outlook Tasks folder and my Moleskine (for tasks that are non-work-related or are faster to write down than create an Outlook Task out of it).

So, to summarize, my current workflow is:

  1. 2 – 3 times each day: process each e-mail in my inbox...
    1.1 Non-actionable and don’t want to keep it? Delete it.
    1.2 Non-actionable but want to keep it? Move to Archive folder.
    1.3 Actionable but not an emergency? Move to _Tomorrow folder.
    1.4 Actionable and a genuine, drop-everything emergency? Move to _Today folder and start working on it immediately after I process all e-mails from inbox.
  2. Beginning of day: process actionable e-mails from _Tomorrow and _Today folders...
    2.1 Move all e-mails from _Tomorrow folder to _Today folder.
    2.2 For each e-mail in _Today folder...
    2.2.1 Can finish in a few minutes? Do it.
    2.2.2 Will take longer than a few minutes? Add it to my Autofocus list by either making an Outlook Task out of it or adding it to my Moleskine.
  3. Start working through my Autofocus list (my Outlook Tasks list and my Moleskine).