Why You Should Use LIFO to Manage Your Inbox

You know the scenario: You have a bunch of unread emails . The more that come in, the more anxious you get—and the more you procrastinate on sorting through them. How do you decide which ones to reply to and in what order?

Even when the amount of unreads isn't overwhelming, your choice can determine how your workday will go. In general, you should choose a side between a last in, first out (LIFO) or first in, first out (FIFO) approach—and, in my opinion, the best choice is LIFO.

What are LIFO and FIFO?

LIFO and FIFO are terms that come from the financial world—respectively, they stand for “last in, first out” and “first in, first out.” They’re often used by accountants to describe inventory but can refer to anything where items are coming “in,” like, well, emails. In this context, it refers to the practice of responding to either your oldest or your newest unreads first, then working your way in the opposite direction from there.

Why is LIFO better than FIFO for email management?

LIFO, or the practice of answering the most recent emails before older ones, is more common than FIFO for good reason: Your most recent emails are the ones most likely to be time-sensitive, relevant, or actively blocking someone else’s work as they go unanswered. Meanwhile, the older a message gets, the higher the odds are that the window for a perfect response has already closed. At that point, stressing over it doesn’t magically make you more punctual, it just slows you down. Focusing on what’s right in front of you helps you stay responsive and on top of your current workload, which is usually what your job (or life) actually rewards.

"But what if I left the older ones too long?" you worry. Don't—if something from the past is truly urgent or important, you’ll get a follow-up and, even though that might be embarrassing for you, it’ll bump the older content at hand into LIFO territory anyway. LIFO essentially relies on the idea that the older problems will sort themselves out or be brought back to your attention if they have to be. It’s like giving yourself grace on what you missed and focusing instead on what you can take care of right now. It works best if you rely on it when you have to, but commit to dealing with incoming mail in a more timely way going forward. If you miss too many emails and have to get too many follow-ups, your reputation will take a hit. That's why LIFO works best in general: Once you create the habit of responding to the last-in, you'll eventually stop having first-in messages at all.

Of course, there might be times when you don’t get a follow-up or really do miss something important from the past. One day a week or so, use the time that you’ve blocked out for your email management to work in FIFO mode, going through your emails reverse-chronologically to make sure you didn’t miss anything big. Using FIFO too consistently can have negative consequences, though. If you’re always working on tasks from the past, you risk missing newer, more urgent ones that need immediate attention. Save it for one day every once in a while and use your time to handle pressing matters on a day-to-day basis.

An important element of either strategy is timing. Make sure to block out time for email management every day, ideally using a scheduling tactic like timeboxing. Dedicating specific, uninterrupted time to your inbox management makes it more doable and ensures you’ll actually handle the emails in the first place, whereas answering them sporadically through the day opens you up to the possibility of being distracted or procrastinating more frequently.

If you're struggling to adopt a LIFO mindset, consider the "one-touch" method. With this more intense approach, you commit to opening every email as soon as you get it. It will force you to build a habit that results in you never letting any email get away from you. 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. Schedule any required tasks into your to-do list, then keep on moving. You're more likely to get the task done when you need to simply by virtue of being readily aware of it because you opened the message as soon as it came in.