May 02, 2016 Raphaël Dubigny 1 min read

I recently had a quick formation with Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle our CEO at Theodo. He taught me how to be efficient at reading emails. Here are his advices:

don't sort emails. Use the search.

don't use multiple labels. One label is enough: urgent or not.

for each mail, there is two options: answer or decide not to answer. Necessarily, if you are to answer, this mail is important. Answer it quickly. Star each mail you have an action to do.

monitor your answering lead time. You must not have email older than 72 hours in your inbox.

start with older emails. It helps for the previous point.

don't use your mouse, use keyboard shortcuts instead. You must be able to: archive, answer, tag and go to next email without your mouse.

use boomerang (or google inbox's snooze, or follow-up then) for each of your answers that contains a question mark. It's the key of the follow up.

don't use tasks. Your todo list is your inbox. The inbox is your unique entry point.

planify time for reading email and answering the starred ones. 3 times a day is fine.

if it takes less than 2 minutes to answer: do it immediately.

This list isn't exhaustive. Share your own advice in the comments!