Use the ‘One-Touch’ Rule to Manage Your Email Inbox

For as useful as emails are, they sure have a way of hampering productivity. Not only do endless emails bog you down and keep you stuck in a loop of endless replies, but the stress of even having to wade through both the important messages and the junk is enough to make you avoid your inbox altogether. There's a reason "answer emails" is always the example I use for a tedious-but-important task when I'm explaining more complicated, detailed productivity techniques.

But there are smaller techniques you can apply directly to email management, too. To stay on top of your work, school, and personal correspondence, you need a productivity plan, but it doesn't have to be intense: You can try the simple “touch” rules of inbox management.

The one-touch rule

Start reframing how you think of every email you get and consider them each an immediate priority. Crucially, I only mean the email itself is a priority; if you think too hard about this, you'll get overwhelmed fast. You don’t have to do whatever task is outlined in it the moment it arrives, but you do have to open it. The “one-touch” rule is similar to the “two-minute” rule of productivity in that way: A task that takes less than two minutes to complete should be done right away.

Open the email, respond to it, and either delete or archive it, depending on if you’ll need it later. If it requires no response, even better. This method works best for people who get a lot of emails that aren’t necessary to respond to, like all-staff updates. The goal is to touch it once instead of coming back to it repeatedly and deliberating if and when you’ll respond or deal with it or instead of procrastinating, never opening it, and being unaware of its contents (or even existence) when you actually need to know what it said. Open it, take in the information, send feedback if necessary, and be done with it.

The two-touch rule

If you tend to have a lot of emails that need a response and the one-touch rule isn't working well, you can move on to a “two-touch” method to clear your mind and be more productive. On the first touch of the email, decide if you need to respond to it right away (making it one-touch) or it’s something that can or should be responded to later in the week.

Use your email service’s flagging or snoozing functions to categorize it, so it is available to you easily when you’re ready to respond. Your first touch is still opening it right away—that’s key. Letting emails pile up is overwhelming, but opening them right away will help you maintain peace in your inbox. Designating a specific time to respond to non-urgent messages will also free you up to be more productive, as you’ll know you’ll get it done and won’t feel it weighing on you.

Make sure you schedule time into your week to circle back on the flagged emails. Try building a 3-3-3 list to manage your to-dos, designating one of your three medium-sized or small tasks to opening all those saved messages.