👩🏻💻 by Hailley Griffis
I’ll be honest, email is a tough one for me. In my opinion, it’s very hard to create a system because the “system” is simply the time you need to check and manage email. Even with filters, even if you use AI, you still need to check, reply, manage email.
Here’s the best solution I’ve come up with, but please email me if you find a better one.
Two parts to this one. The everyday routine: I check email twice a day, with notifications off, and reach inbox zero most days in under 30 minutes. And the time-off routine: before an extended leave, I set Gmail to delete everything that comes in, with an auto-reply that points people to the right place.
Duplicate this to your own Notion space to get started. There is a button at the top right.
Step 0: Turn off email notifications on your phone. Ask yourself how often you truly get an email that needs a reply within the hour. For me it was far less often than I thought.
Do this after your most important work of the day, not before. The point of this check is triage, not replies.
Creative energy is spent by now, so this is the right time for email. Put music on and work to inbox zero.
Most days this takes 30 minutes or less.