How to process and clean your inbox

If you’re listening to this, there’s a good chance you’re a human being. (Although the speed at which AI is developing may be not all of you… A big hello to Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT (As Boris Johnson would say it)

And, as a human being, you’re attacked every day by emotions, fatigue, viruses and micro-managing bosses and demanding colleagues.

You’re not going to be able to stay consistent with your productivity systems and processes. (And even AI gets confused from time to time) 

You WILL fall off the wagon from time to time

As David Allen, of Getting Things Done (GTD), often emphasises, falling off the productivity "wagon" is normal and expected. His most famous quote on this topic is: “If you don't fall off the wagon regularly, you're not playing a big enough game.”

So, what can you do when you do fall off? How can you quickly get back on track? Well, that’s what we’re going to look at today. 

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Script | 416

Hello, and welcome to episode 416 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development, and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. 

One of the most common questions I get is what to do when your systems become neglected following a particularly busy period, a holiday, or illness or even plain, good old-fashioned laziness. 

It happens to everyone from time to time, and it certainly doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. 

Yet it can leave you feeling that there’s something lacking, that perhaps there’s something wrong with you. 

Of course, simply not true. There’s nothing wrong with you at all. It’s another sign that you are a functioning human being. (That’s a good thing, by the way) 

All that’s happened is you got very busy and attended to the most important work that needed doing in that moment, or that you’ve just got back from holiday (vacation), and there’s a lot of catching-up and cleaning up to do. 

Both scenarios can leave you with some tidying up to do. That doesn’t mean everything has failed. It just means there’s some tidying up to do. 

So, to get us started, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week’s question. 

This week’s question comes from Ernesto. Ernesto asks, Hi Carl, thank you for the Time Sector System. Finally, I have a system that works after many years of trying. My question is, what do you do when, for whatever reason, you fall off the wagon and let things slip? Is there a quick way to get back on track? 

Hi Ernesto, thank you for your question. 

Firstly, as I mentioned, this is perfectly normal. So many things can cause us to stop following our system, leaving us feeling anxious about everything that needs cleaning up. 

The first place to start is by cleaning up your to-do list for today. This is what I call the business end of any task management system. Your today list. 

With the exception of your inbox, all your other lists are just holding pens of tasks that you have processed and decided do not need doing today. Your inbox is where unprocessed tasks sit until you decide what to do with them. 

So get your list of tasks for today cleaned up. Reschedule tasks that do not need to be done today, and delete or check off those that have been completed or are no longer needed. 

This one step will clear the runway and give you a curated list of things that do need to be done today.

One of the tricks I have to help me here is to give myself a few minutes each evening to clear this list. Anything I have not completed that day is either checked off if done, rescheduled if not, or deleted if no longer needed. 

Doing this every day ensures it takes only a few minutes, and by the start of the new day, my today list is curated, accurate, and focused. 

I’m reminded here of a story I learned from friend of this podcast, Simon Jeffries, a former UK special Forces officer, who mentioned that when he joined the Royal Marines, from day 1, the training instructors began teaching a simple habit that all marines live by:

As Simon says, “the military doesn’t take civilians and turn them into soldiers overnight. It can't. Day one of training, the standard is simple...

Turn up on time. Keep your kit clean. Look after your rifle.

That's it. A few weeks in, the expectations layer. Month after month, the load increases. The standards compound until discipline is second nature — under fatigue, under pressure, under fire.

 Centuries of trial and error went into that approach.

And the reason it works isn't complicated. You cannot expect discipline under fire unless it's second nature. And second nature requires progressive, consistent training.”

Now I’ve often talked about the standards you set for yourself. That could always end the day with a clear plan for the next. It could also be to clear your today’s to-do list so it’s reset and ready for tomorrow. 

Being consistent and making it a non-negotiable, no matter how tired you are, will soon embed this habit so it just becomes second nature. 

The next list to clean up is your inbox. There’s potential for something important and urgent to be missed here. 

If you’re like most people, you will be throwing a lot of things in there throughout the day. By the time you get to the end of the day, a lot of what you added will have been forgotten about. 

It’s this that makes keeping this list under control important. 

The good news about your inbox is that while you will be adding important things in there, you’re also likely to be adding things that, in hindsight, you do not need to do. These can be deleted.

What remains can be processed using three simple questions: 

What is it? A note, an event or a task. If it’s a note, copy and paste it into your notes. If it’s an event, such as an appointment, move it to your calendar. 

For what remains, ask yourself:

What do I need to do with it? This is about making sure the task is written clearly, so it’s clear what you need to do. 

And finally, ask, “When will I do it?” That will guide you where to put it now that you have processed it. 

Is it something that needs to be done this week, or can it wait until next week, etc.? 

If it needs to be done this week, you will again ask the question: when? When will you do it? 

Beyond that, everything else can wait until your next weekly planning session. 

One of the side benefits of the Time Sector System is that you will find many of the tasks you postpone to next week, this month, or next month will sort themselves out and can be deleted. This is one of my favourite aspects of the Time Sector System, the natural elimination of low-value tasks. 

It’s worth mentioning a couple of tips David Allen, yes, the Getting Things Done David Allen, gave me when we met in Seoul a few years ago. 

David had been travelling through Asia for around ten days, and I asked him how he stayed on top of everything while he was away on business trips. 

He said that the most important thing to stay on top while travelling was communications. Emails will back up very fast if you’re not dedicating some time each day to clearing them. 

Even if all you can find is 20 minutes in the morning before your day begins, take it. One missed day of managing this beast, and you’re going to have to find twice as much time tomorrow, and so on. 

The second tip is to block off at least half a day when you return to catch up. Process your inbox and clear or reschedule any overdue tasks. 

David Allen blocks a whole day if he’s been away for a week or more. Half a day if it’s less than a week. 

Treat this day as an extra day of your trip. Nobody knows you’re back. You quietly get on and catch up with everything you have collected while you were away. 

I adopted both these tips for all my travels, and they work. 

If you don’t do this, you’ll be spending the next two to three weeks trying to catch up while getting on with your regular work. 

Think of it this way: if your regular work naturally takes up your full working day, why do you think adding in a load of catching up will be easily absorbed? It won’t. 

Make the time for it. 

Think of the end of each day only happens when you have done a reset and got yourself ready for the new day.

I will add that I also have a closing-down routine that involves washing any remaining dishes, brushing my teeth, locking all the doors, and closing the terrace curtains. It takes less than five minutes, but it’s now something I automatically do before going to bed. 

It doesn’t require any extra energy or thought. It just happens. 

Doing the daily reset should also be automatic. I remember when I first entered the workplace as a young twenty-year-old and seeing how all my colleagues used to tidy up their desks before going home. 

Nobody would ever dream of leaving papers, pens, pencils and files all over the place. They were tidied up, and that marked the end of the day. 

Funnily enough, as I think about it, I still do that today. My work day is not complete until I have a tidy desk and my task list is reset and ready to go for tomorrow. 

Less than five minutes, and all reset and ready to go. 

That’s how you guard against falling off the wagon. Having a few small habits to ensure you clean up at the end of each day. 

I know it’s human nature to overthink things, but if you stop and consider what’s really important, knowing where you need to be tomorrow morning and what your most important tasks are for the day is all you really need to get yourself back on track. 

And one of those important tasks could be to catch up and clear your inboxes, if that is where many of your current issues are. You get to choose. But do make that choice. Don’t ignore it and make the excuse that you are tired. 

It’s less than five minutes. Come on, you can do that. 

Many of the concepts I’ve talked about here and much more will be a part of next week’s live Ultimate Productivity Workshop. 2 sessions, 2 hours each over two Fridays (or Saturdays if you are in Australia or Asia) 

There are some places left if you want to join us. 

This workshop has helped hundreds of people finally gain control of their time and build a system that prevents backlogs and keeps them from falling off the wagon. 

And, given that it’s live, you have the chance to share your own experiences, learn from others and ask questions. 

There are a lot of exciting lessons in this workshop. I do hope you can join me and let me help you finally make time for the things you want time for. 

I will include the link where you can learn more and register for the show in the show notes.

Thank you, Ernesto, for your question, and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you all a very, very productive week.