In October 2021, the Digital Commons presented an online workshop titled “The Care of Feeding of Email” as part of its Professional Productivity series. The session was recorded and highlights have been made available on the Digital Commons YouTube channel, and embedded below.
In part 1 (below), Robert Talbert, professor of mathematics at Grand Valley State University, discusses the cognitive load of unanswered emails, the value of the Inbox Zero idea, and the role of habits in managing our email.
In part 2 (below), Robert details his “email clarity loop,” the set of decisions he makes (very quickly) to process a day’s worth of emails in a very short amount of time.
In part 3 (below), Robert illustrates his email clarity loop by processing his email inbox in front of a live audience.
In part 4 (below), Damon Miltner, information systems manager at Vanderbilt IT, shares a variety of tools within Outlook for managing emails, including folders, flags, rules, and templates.