A Curmudgeon TechnologistGet off my lawn!

Last night I had a weird dream. I’m pretty sure my manager was chasing me along a precipice (maybe the Grand Canyon) and then I started dispensing this bit of productivity advice:

I told him to create an email address for each role he was in at work. So, bob+mentor@gmail.com and bob+hiringmanager@gmail.com and bob+functionmanager@gmail.com.

I woke up thinking, I think about productivity entirely too much before bed, time to find something to read instead.

[tags]dreaming, dreams, productivity, gtd, lifehack[/tags]

My job right now is pretty much email driven. Almost every email coming in is some task I need to finish. To keep from being overwhelmed I try to keep only a few emails in my inbox at any time so that the message listing box never scrolls.

I very quickly decide what the task is that needs done and either flag it for later work or (if its a task under 2 minutes), finish it right then and there. Then I either delete the email or file it away in folders.

This is close to getting your inbox to empty, one of The David’s original ideas, but I find not having to always have it completely empty less stressful while still getting the? benefits of having fewer items to look at.