Do it right, the first time

This phrase has been around for sometime but it is still as relevant as when it was first conceived.

If you are serious in working smart, the first thing is to change your thinking i.e. Do it right the first time. Your thinking (your thoughts) influence your attitude. Your attitude influences your actions. Your continual actions creates your habits. Your habits determine your lifestyle.

You can apply this concept to your daily incoming mails (including e-mails). Keep to a minimum the number of times you handle your mails, one time is good.

• Set aside a specific time to deal with your mail. (e.g. An hour each day.)
  
• Avoid distractions. Complete the task at hand before proceeding to other tasks.
• As you progress to a more manageable workload, reduce the time set aside to handle you mails.
• Organize and prioritize your mails - 1) Must deal, 2) Deal later, 3) When I have the time.
• Junk the junk mails. For e-mails, get a good anti-spam software. There are many freeware anti-spam softwares. I use Thunderbird e-mail client, which has built-in spam filtering. It is free.
  

The objective is to break your mails into groupings. Within each group, you break it into smaller groups. For example - Must deal mails - Prioritize it into 1) Response now, 2) Delegate it, 3) Deal with it later (Information are not available - waiting for colleagues information). As you prioritize, write notes directly on the mails, so that when you reply, you have an idea of your response.

Be flexible with your scheduled time. If you find yourself, unable to complete your mail handling regularly, schedule more time each day. As you progress, it will take less time to handle your day-to-day mails, schedule a shorter time.

"Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things."
- Lawrence D. Bell -