The 7 Types of Email (And How to Deal With Them)
A system for email productivity to regularly get to “inbox zero”.
All of your emails can fit into one of the following 7 categories. Here's how to deal with each one of them:
#1 No need to reply, and not important to read
Generously apply the archive or delete function.
#2 File away
Examples include tax receipts, examples of great emails, and info needed when you next work on a project.
Create a specific folder and throw them all in there.
#3 Optional response No need to respond, but it would be more courteous if you did.
#4 Spare time reading
Practice putting as many emails as possible into this category (and the previous one!)
#5 Required to respond today
Go ahead and respond immediately, if important and urgent, or at the end of your workday when you are clearing out your inbox.
#6 Required to respond but not today
Put it in a folder named the day you would like to respond (Monday, Tuesday, etc.) then on that day, go into that folder.
#7 Undecided
Rather than suffer from paralysis by analysis, just put it into one of the above categories. It‘s probably #1 or #2.