Double-batch your email

That it seems more effective to read email in batches at times of day that suit you best, rather than as soon as you receive a notification that something new has arrived, I have mentioned here before. At that time, I referred to Mark et al.’s interesting study “Email Duration, Batching and Self-interruption: Patterns of Email Use on Productivity and Stress.” According to the researchers, those who batch their email reading have more control over their workday and spend less time switching between tasks.

For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:

A batch within the batch

Karolina Fabó wrote to me and shared a way to take batching one step further. I thought it was so good that I would like you to hear about it as well.

If I understood her correctly, it works like this: When she checks for new messages a few times during the day, she quickly categorizes the incoming emails into a few predefined categories. After that, she handles the emails in one category at a time.

In this way, she minimizes switching time between emails, since emails in a batch resemble one another.

Instead of jumping back and forth between tasks throughout the day, she now tackles a batch of emails. And instead of jumping between emails that vary widely in topic, length, and complexity, she processes a batch of emails of the same type. Double-batching!

Do this

If you, like me, think this sounds like an excellent idea,

Create the categories you find useful in your email app so they are prepared. These might be categories for specific projects, for emails that mostly just need to be read, for short emails, for emails that mean you need to do something specific (approve something, perhaps), for complicated emails, or for emails with offers you need to quickly decide on.
For each category you create, consider whether a rule or a filter (depending on which email app you use) could identify which category a certain email should have so that you do not have to do it manually. If so, create the rules and filters you need.
The next time you check your inbox, categorize the incoming emails.
Then choose which category of emails you will handle next.
Try double-batching for a couple of days and evaluate gradually. Do you have the categories you need? Does categorizing go fast enough, or could you speed it up with a keyboard shortcut?

Less jumping around, more focused control

If you batch both when it comes to when you read new emails and which type of email you read at any given time, you will most likely handle your email faster than before. You will gain even more control over what you spend your time on and have more time available to devote to the tasks where you need it most.

How do you do it?

Do you also use categories in your email the way Karolina does? If so, would you like to tell me what some of your categories might be? I am curious. Your email will, of course, be categorized in my inbox as an extra dear email with high priority!

If you have a colleague who would benefit from double-batching more, tell them about this trick, because the more people who work in a structured way, the smoother our workdays become.

(Speaking of emails, did you know you can choose to only get notifications for certain emails?)

You can get more!

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If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.

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