Dealing With Email From Oldest to Newest

A few days ago, David Brown at Techstars wrote a great post titled “Staying Organized with Workflow” about how he stays organized. Brown and I work across the hall from each other and interact regularly. Often he’ll send me a note about something and I’ll just wander over and talk to him. He’s always available, super responsive on email, and very good at having a three minute meeting that results in a decision.

There was one thing in his approach that was something I used to do a long time ago, but stopped doing when I started using Gmail.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away when I used Outlook, I processed my email in chronological order—oldest at the top. Gmail doesn’t let you reverse the sort order from newest at the top, so I just got out of the habit of this. But when I get behind on email by a few days and end up with 100 or more to grind through, I always go to the bottom and work backwards.

Regardless of the process you use, contemplate the reverse order of response from oldest to newest. Tweet This Quote

When I saw Brown’s note, I thought “duh.” Often, I have an almost empty inbox (as I do now—there is literally one message in it—read, but not responded to—right now). So, even when there are 17 brand new emails, just clicking on the bottom one and reading backwards works just fine. In fact, it’s even better in the current world than my previous Outlook galaxy because of conversation mode.

Unlike Brown, I don’t use tasks or filters. I find that when I move things to a task list, I’m literally exiling them to the land of never-get-done. The only exception is longer form writing that is not urgent, which I just star in Gmail, archive, and periodically grind through my starred folder.

If you aren’t going to do something with an email, just archive or delete it—don’t let it sit there. Tweet This Quote

Regardless of the process you use, contemplate the reverse order of response from oldest to newest. If you aren’t going to do something with an email, just archive or delete it—don’t let it sit there. And, if you want some additional good tips, go read Brown’s post Staying Organized with Workflow.

This originally appeared on Brad’s blog.