Master your email inbox

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to the Clinician Researcher Podcast. I'm your host, Toyosi

2
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:09,840
Onwuemene. What a pleasure it is to be talking with you today. Thank you so much for tuning

3
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:14,720
in. I'm excited about today's topic. I'm talking about mastering your email inbox.

4
00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:20,600
Yes, that's mastering your email inbox. And I know that this is a topic that so many people

5
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,380
talk about, but I want to give you a fresh perspective on mastering your email inbox

6
00:00:25,380 --> 00:00:29,240
that I think you're going to enjoy. And I'm going to share some insights about things

7
00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:33,720
that have worked for me. And I hope that you will also do the same for me and share some

8
00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:38,080
insights about what has worked for you. One of the things that I think is important to

9
00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:42,000
note is that if you're in a master email inbox, you actually do need to be intentional

10
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:49,840
about email. And so this this episode is really to help you think intentionally and strategically

11
00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:55,280
about how you use your email inbox to your advantage and remove any disadvantages that

12
00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:00,680
your email inbox may have for you. Yes, I talked about being strategic and intentional

13
00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:08,720
to use the advantages and disadvantages of your email inbox to your to your benefit.

14
00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:13,880
So I want to first of all start by telling you that did you know that the average American

15
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:23,160
receives 120 emails a day? Oh, yes, 120 emails a day. That is a minimum of 10 emails per

16
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:30,400
hour. If you are considering a 12 day work week of many academics. And if you decided

17
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:35,720
that it is, you know, an eight day work week, and it very well could be for you. That's

18
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:42,400
about 30 to 40 emails, right? Is that is that? Right now I have to do the math because I'm

19
00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,680
like, wait a minute, how much is 100? I don't I don't know. This is the wrong time for me

20
00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:50,680
to be doing math. But that's a lot of email. That's a lot of email. So the average person

21
00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:55,720
receives a lot of email, email messages day. And if you are just like, okay, I'm just going

22
00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:00,800
to open my email inbox and just let the emails flow in. It's a lot of emails flowing in when

23
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:06,840
you're supposed to be doing deep work. Okay, so how do we think about our email inboxes?

24
00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:10,080
So the first thing I want to share with you, the very first thing I want to share with

25
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,360
you is that it is important for you to recognize how you create value. This is important. This

26
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:22,440
is like the overarching thing that you really have to recognize about your, your your life,

27
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,360
right? Is how do you create value? How do you create value at work? Right? You work

28
00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:31,920
for somebody or you may work for yourself. As a researcher, you work to build your research

29
00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:37,360
program and they're their funders who pay you, right? So you have people who expect

30
00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:43,440
something from you because of money they give you. And so for your employer, as a clinician,

31
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:47,240
they expect that you're going to do some clinical care, create value in the clinical space,

32
00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:52,000
and they pay you for that clinical care. Or in your research program, you have funders

33
00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,400
and maybe it's your institution that's funding you part of the way, or maybe it's the NIH

34
00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,400
that's funding you, or maybe it's a foundation sponsor, or maybe it's an industry sponsor.

35
00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,760
They have an expectation that, hey, we are remitting money to your institution on a regular

36
00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,320
basis, we have an expectation for what you create. And so that's important for you to

37
00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:13,200
recognize that in the space in which you work, there was a certain amount of value that's

38
00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,720
expected. You may not think about it very much and you may just be like, well, I just

39
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:23,120
do my work, I get paid and you do. But let me tell you that if you stop creating in the

40
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:28,120
area for which your people say you have, you're creating value for them, for example, let's

41
00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:32,440
say you don't see patients for a year, you will hear about it because somebody will say,

42
00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:36,080
hey, hey, hey, I think this person's supposed to be creating value this way. And I don't

43
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,820
see, I don't see the receipts, I don't see the benefits. And so you'll hear about it.

44
00:03:40,820 --> 00:03:44,480
But you do your work because you're an amazing physician, you work so hard. In fact, you

45
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:48,640
probably do more than you're supposed to. And you probably do a lot of things that don't

46
00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:52,760
create value as much as you do things that create value. But it is important for you

47
00:03:52,760 --> 00:04:01,280
to recognize how you create value. Maybe the shorthand for that is how do you make money?

48
00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:07,080
And if it's through grants and funded sponsored projects, it's through creating value through

49
00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:11,120
your research. And so you know that moving your research forward and communicating the

50
00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:17,400
value of your research is how you create value. And partly for some of us and actually for

51
00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:22,680
most of us, it may be more clinical than research. Creating value is what we do in taking care

52
00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:27,360
of patients. More specifically, you make money when you see a patient in close chart that

53
00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:32,120
generates a bill. And so those are the things that create value for your organization. So

54
00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:37,640
it's really important to recognize that. That email is not the primary reason by I mean,

55
00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:42,280
it's not the primary vehicle by which we create value. And you knew that I didn't have to

56
00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:48,480
tell you that. But the reason it's important is to recognize that your email inbox is a

57
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:54,240
tool to support your value creation. I want to say that one more time. Your email inbox

58
00:04:54,240 --> 00:05:00,600
is a tool to support value creation. It is a tool and it's got to support you. If for

59
00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:05,360
whatever reason your email inbox becomes a competitor of your ability to create value,

60
00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:10,880
or it's a detractor from your ability to create value, then it's no longer supporting you

61
00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:17,640
and it becomes the enemy. But the email inbox is neutral. It is not, it's not out to get

62
00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:22,160
you and it's not out to sabotage you, right? It's also not really out to help you either.

63
00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:28,000
It's just neutral. It's just like, Hey, I'm just the space virtually where I collect these

64
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:33,120
signals that become emails in your inbox that you can read. I'm very neutral here. I just,

65
00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:39,000
I'm just here. I exist whether you exist or not. And, and it's a neutral, it's a neutral

66
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:43,440
thing. So it's a tool. And how do we use this tool to our advantage? And I think the first

67
00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:48,560
thing is to recognize how you create value. And because you recognize how you create value,

68
00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,680
you put everything else in perspective. If this is the way I create value through my

69
00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:57,520
scholarship, then everything else kind of takes a backseat to creating value through

70
00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:01,560
my scholarship. So creating value through my scholarships, number one. And then if you

71
00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:07,160
create value clinically, it's like, okay, well, creating value through taking care of

72
00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:13,280
patients in the, in a way that I can see them and close a chart that generates a bill. That's

73
00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:18,280
another way that you create value. Now, you may say that I'm kind of just, you know, boiling

74
00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:24,200
it down to its, to its barest bones. And yes, you do a lot more than just see a patient

75
00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:29,760
and bill. I recognize that. But what I'm saying is recognize that in everything you do, if

76
00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:34,520
you take great care of patients and bills are not generated, it is a problem. And you

77
00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:37,920
may not think it's a problem, but I want to, I want to invite you to try it for a month,

78
00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:42,440
right? See patients don't generate a bill, close the chart. And I mean, you're not going

79
00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,560
to do that. It's just built into what you do. Closing charts is built into what you

80
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,520
do. And when people are sending you emails and say, Hey, the charts not closed, it's

81
00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:53,960
because they know closing the chart generates the bill. But anyway, I just want to help

82
00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:59,000
you recognize and you already do, but it's important to say, this is the way I create

83
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,960
value at work. If I think about what are my highest priorities at work, then it's got

84
00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:11,240
to be the value you create through your scholarship and the value you create through your clinical

85
00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:16,640
work. Now I want to talk about the value create through education. Now, if you're in an academic

86
00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:20,920
medical center, you teach, right? You, you have fellows in your clinic or you have residents,

87
00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:25,240
you have med students, so you are creating value through education. But if nobody's paying

88
00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:29,280
you to create that value, then education is going to be number three. If you're kind of

89
00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,880
going to think about what are your top three things by which you create value. Now, maybe

90
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,000
you have administrative work as part of the value you create. Somebody pays you for a

91
00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:42,040
named medical director role before a named administrative role. Then yes, it's got to

92
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:47,520
come in your top three. But, but I want you to recognize that if you're paid for it, then

93
00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:52,040
it should be part of the things that you recognize as the value of creating for your organization.

94
00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,960
If you're not paid for it, doesn't mean you're not creating value for your organization,

95
00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:01,720
but your organization is telling you that they don't recognize that value you create.

96
00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:05,560
And so if education is a big part of what you're doing, and it's so important to you,

97
00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:09,280
and you feel like it really should be in the top three of your value creation, you even

98
00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:13,320
think it should be number one, then I want to challenge you and I want to invite you

99
00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:19,760
to talk to talk to your senior director or your division director, maybe your chair about

100
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:27,000
how it can actually be a named, named activity for which values created say, Hey, I'm going

101
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,480
to get money for this activity that I do. Right. And I think it's important. And if

102
00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:36,360
you don't get money for it, I'm not saying it's not valuable. I'm just telling you that

103
00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:41,560
your institution does not value it enough to give you money for it. And, and it's an

104
00:08:41,560 --> 00:08:47,400
opportunity to create conversation around how do I, how do I get that? How do I, how

105
00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:51,960
do I get it recognized that I'm doing this work? Anyway, all right, that feels like a

106
00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:57,000
digression. But anyway, I wanted to say all that to say that when you recognize the value

107
00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:02,320
you create, it helps you put your email inbox in perspective, and in using it as a tool

108
00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:07,040
to support the value you create, but also not allowing it to distract you from creating

109
00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,720
value. Okay, that's number one. Number two kind of flows from the first. And it's really

110
00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:17,960
if you recognize the value you create, if you recognize that you are paid to, you know,

111
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:23,080
to, to move research forward, to answer important questions for your funders, then you recognize

112
00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:29,040
that there are very few activities you do in your day to day, that actually move that

113
00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:34,600
value creation process forward. If clinical care is one of the pieces of the value you

114
00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:40,680
create, and that will depend now on your split, right, whether it's an 80 20 roll or 70 30,

115
00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:50,600
whatever it is, 50 50, recognize that the 20% is really the activities you do that move

116
00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:56,400
that value creation process forward. So for example, I do mostly research. And so, you

117
00:09:56,400 --> 00:10:01,160
know, the funders are giving me money to create value through my research. And so my writing

118
00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:06,840
is so important, right, doing the research, and writing about it or communicating my science,

119
00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:11,480
whether that is through submitted manuscripts, or communicating to future funders, or communicating

120
00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:17,200
to the scientific public about my work, that is value that I created my research program.

121
00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:21,760
And so it becomes really important for me to prioritize that, how do I prioritize that,

122
00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:25,640
it means I start the day with at least 30 minutes of writing, I usually do 90 minutes

123
00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:29,840
as like a first start to my day, I'm like, I've done this 90 minutes, I've moved this

124
00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:35,080
manuscript project forward, I've created that value already, right, the day starts

125
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:41,920
with value creation. And so that's mastering my my 20% in the value I create it through

126
00:10:41,920 --> 00:10:46,760
my research. Okay, I also create value through my clinical care. For me, that's rounding

127
00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:51,760
on the consult service, I finished the value creation of my research in the morning, and

128
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:56,360
then I go round on the consult service in the afternoon, I make sure we see patients

129
00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:01,520
and I sign the notes, and I close the chart, to the extent to which you can close the chart

130
00:11:01,520 --> 00:11:05,520
in the inpatient setting, you don't really close the chart, but you sign the note, and

131
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:10,600
then you bill, and then you've created value through your clinical work. Now, somebody

132
00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,920
will call and say, hey, we have a multidisciplinary meeting coming up, and we want all the specialists

133
00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:20,920
to be there. I will tell you that while that is very important and absolutely critical

134
00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:26,280
to moving patient care forward, that multidisciplinary meeting, I will ask myself, do I need to

135
00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:31,920
be there? Right? Is my presence there? Absolutely necessary? Or is there somebody else who can

136
00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:36,640
represent me? Because I recognize that multidisciplinary meeting as a meeting that does not create

137
00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:42,200
value for more organization from the perspective of patients seeing chart closed. Okay, now

138
00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:46,660
I'm not trying to be reductionist about this, but I'm just letting you know how it shapes

139
00:11:46,660 --> 00:11:51,800
the way I think about my 20% in each of these areas. Or somebody calls me and says, hey,

140
00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:57,080
the prior authorization needs to be called in by a physician. I start to laugh actually,

141
00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:01,040
because I'm like, oh, it does need to be called in, but not by me. Who can do this? Who can

142
00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:06,800
do this for me? Because the time I spend on the phone, 20, 30, 40 minutes is not value

143
00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:10,880
created for my organization. Now, is it value created for the patient? Absolutely. Somebody

144
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,640
needs to create that value, but it's not me. And the reason it's not me is because it's

145
00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:20,200
not part of the things that are on my job description for which I am paid, right? It's

146
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:25,840
not. And I know this may be controversial, but I'm saying that if you are the one calling

147
00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:30,580
all your prior authorizations, it is time to have a conversation with somebody who is

148
00:12:30,580 --> 00:12:36,280
in charge of maybe your division or your department, because you have to understand that the things

149
00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:40,760
for which you are not paid are things that the institution is explicitly saying to you

150
00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:48,800
that they don't value. And if they value it, and they need to find a way to enhance or

151
00:12:48,800 --> 00:12:57,480
to document that value by paying you for it. Okay, I feel like I'm going in a different

152
00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:02,600
direction, but I just want to share that. So we haven't even gotten to email yet, right?

153
00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:07,240
The reason we haven't gotten to email first is just to recognize that email is not number

154
00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:11,520
one, and it's not number two. Number one is recognizing the value you create. Number two

155
00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:18,340
is maximizing your 20%. So the reason that maximizing your 20% is important is because

156
00:13:18,340 --> 00:13:23,240
before you ever get to your email inbox any day, create value first. Create value in the

157
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:28,480
things for which you are paid, period. Create value first. And the moment you've created

158
00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:34,080
value, and whether that is that you've closed charts, or that you have taken care of your

159
00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:41,240
research investment, then once you've created that value, then your email inbox can possibly

160
00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:46,960
come to the fore, right? It's a tool for communication. It kind of is part of the value creation

161
00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:51,600
process. It's not the most important piece of the value creation process. And so I'm

162
00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:58,600
inviting you to recognize your value and create the value any given day, create value first,

163
00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:05,960
and then go to your email inbox. Now, that moves us to number three. Inherent in what

164
00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:12,840
I said in points one and two, right? Inherent in those two things is that your email inbox

165
00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:17,360
is probably not a place you should be in first thing in the morning. Now, I want to just

166
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:24,840
put a caveat to that and say that I am in my email inbox sometimes, maybe at 7am. And

167
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:30,240
that's because honestly, by 7am, I've done, I've done, I'm going to say it, I'm going

168
00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:34,160
to confess that I've done 90 minutes of writing by 7am. Yes, I get up early. I'm an early

169
00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:39,520
riser. I'm a big morning person. I'm very huge morning person. So I wake up early and

170
00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:43,720
I get writing done early in the morning before I start to run around and do things and chase

171
00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:49,280
kids. I do that. And so sometimes at 7am, I am in the email inbox and I'm in my email

172
00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,880
inbox because I've created value already. I'm like, I can be here now because I've created

173
00:14:52,880 --> 00:14:58,400
value. So I'm not saying that you can't do email in the morning. There's no can't. There's

174
00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:04,840
only just you making things work for you. But I am saying that until you've created value,

175
00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:08,440
I think you should reconsider whether you should be in your email inbox or not. One

176
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:14,480
of the ways I get around this is that sometimes I'm doing email at the end of the day and

177
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:19,240
I will schedule emails for the morning. And I'm so glad that Outlook lets me do that.

178
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:24,160
That's my work email provider. You may have a different provider, but I'll schedule emails

179
00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:29,360
to arrive in the morning. I'll sometimes clear up my inbox at the end of the day and scheduling

180
00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:34,760
emails to arrive in the morning. So I feel like my morning email work has been done.

181
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:39,000
emails have been sent out in the morning. Great. Now I feel like I have I have at least

182
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,560
hours in the day before I ever have to go to my inbox because I'm waiting for those

183
00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:46,160
responses. I know they're coming because I scheduled these emails to happen in the morning

184
00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,400
and I'm going to come back to those responses probably midday as my first time to touch

185
00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:56,240
email. Okay, so anyway, so I'm saying again, that you got to limit the space for your email.

186
00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:02,080
This is point number three. And in limiting the space for your email, you are defining

187
00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:06,320
when you go to your email inbox. Now for me, that's not like a specific time of day. Like

188
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:12,360
I only check my email at 11 and 12pm or something. I don't do that. I really do say until I've

189
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:16,840
done this work, I'm not looking my email inbox. And if there's you know, is a certain

190
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:21,080
email I'm expecting or I have a certain feeling about, you know, things that are in my inbox,

191
00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,840
you know, sometimes they can be anxiety related to like, is there something important that

192
00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:30,400
I'm missing that I'm not responding to? But yes, that anxiety, if it's present, I've

193
00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:35,640
kind of worked against it, I no longer allow my email inbox to drive anxiety. But if that

194
00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:39,280
anxiety is present, then it really drives the value creation process because it's like

195
00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:43,920
I'm not checking email until I've created value, I'm not going to do it. And so if I

196
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,960
really am anxious to check my inbox, and I better be anxious to create value first, and

197
00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:51,960
then I can check my inbox. And so that's that's how I want you to think about limiting the

198
00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:56,600
space for your email is don't allow it to fill your day. And I know there are people

199
00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:03,480
who have their email open and they're just responding all day. It's not efficient. You

200
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:08,600
have more time in your inbox than you really need to. And it's distracting as well. And

201
00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:13,400
so yes, if you have one of those, you know, bells that ring when you know the Pavlov bell

202
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:17,440
that rings when your email inbox comes in, I want you to consider turning it off. In

203
00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:21,520
fact, I want you to consider just closing your email inbox thing, just whatever your

204
00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:26,520
provider is just close it for the day. Just don't don't open it until you're ready.

205
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,760
Make email a part of your business, right? It's like it's on my schedule. It's on my

206
00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:35,200
list of things to do for the day. This is the time in which I address email. This is

207
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:40,800
really important. This is the time in which I address email. So don't let email just take

208
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:44,080
over your day and you're responding to email in the morning and then the afternoon and

209
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,920
then the evening and then the middle of the night. I know people do that. And I want to

210
00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,720
bet you that you have mentors who do that. I want to bet that you have people that you

211
00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:56,200
really respect who are just in the email inbox all day. But I want to invite you to think

212
00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:02,040
about your email inbox is one of your activities for which you create space, you address and

213
00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:06,540
you're done. Because you know what email will be there tomorrow. And one of the great things

214
00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:11,080
about your email inbox is that any email that accumulates will wait for you. Like it's not

215
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:16,400
a disappearing messages thing. It will wait for you. It'll still be there. And maybe you're

216
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,880
like, no, I don't want I don't want anybody to send me an email and I'm not looking like

217
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:25,080
I'm responsive. Again, I want I want you to calm down if you're feeling that way. And

218
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:29,560
I, I sense the anxiety that's related to that. Sometimes there's this feeling like if you

219
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,920
don't respond, people think you're not working. Again, it's so important to clarify how do

220
00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:38,600
you create value for your organization to so important. Because when you understand

221
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:43,440
how you create value, if anybody's like you didn't respond to my email within 20 minutes,

222
00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:46,320
you need to have a conversation with that person if they're important enough in your

223
00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:51,680
ecosystem to say, Hey, I just want to clarify how I create value for this organization.

224
00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:56,140
And I want to understand how responding within 10 minutes of an email writing my inbox helps

225
00:18:56,140 --> 00:19:00,680
me create that. Right? You need to have those conversations that there are people who are

226
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:04,680
yelling at you are upset at you in any way, because you're not that responsive. You do

227
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:09,100
need to have conversations with them about how you create value and what time is needed

228
00:19:09,100 --> 00:19:14,280
to create the value that they respect, or the value for which you are paid. And so if

229
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:18,560
anybody has an expectation that you're going to respond to emails within 15 minutes as

230
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:24,540
evidence of productivity, I want you to think about that person. If they're valuable enough

231
00:19:24,540 --> 00:19:30,120
in your ecosystem, have a conversation about your new strategy, and how you're going to

232
00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:34,620
do things from now on so that you can create the value they most love the value that they

233
00:19:34,620 --> 00:19:39,760
most appreciate. And if they say, Hey, that's not what I value. If you're an administration,

234
00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:45,160
maybe that's what's valued. But the important thing is to clarify it, put it on your schedule

235
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:50,600
so you can limit its encroachment into your entire life. Okay, that's number three, limit

236
00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:56,760
the space for email. Number four, when you do go into your inbox, prioritize the 20%

237
00:19:56,760 --> 00:20:01,120
I'm big on this, this whole thing of like, what are you going to respond to that gives

238
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:06,380
you the maximum bang for your buck? Invariably in your email inbox is the you know, funny

239
00:20:06,380 --> 00:20:11,320
cat video, somehow your name gone on that, that mailing list and you get the funny cat

240
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:16,380
video, you might get the Oh, here's what's happening on campus in the coming year. These

241
00:20:16,380 --> 00:20:20,440
are great emails and please, who doesn't love a funny cat video and who doesn't love to

242
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,760
know what's happening on campus? When you go into your email inbox, these are not your

243
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:30,360
top 20%. They're not. And if you did number three, where you're limiting the space for

244
00:20:30,360 --> 00:20:34,560
your email, you may have 30 minutes on your calendar to process email. So you want to

245
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:39,440
go to the email that's most important, scan your inbox and say, Oh, I got an email from

246
00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:43,800
the editor of the journal about the journal that I submitted. That's kind of like a 20%

247
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:50,080
email. I would address that first. And okay, maybe there's an email inbox about you know,

248
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:54,680
a patient chart that you haven't closed. That's kind of like the 20% of your clinical. Okay,

249
00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:59,160
I would address that. You know, so you know, I don't need to tell you but what I'm saying

250
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,680
is that don't just process your email from top to bottom. If you have time, okay, maybe

251
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:08,400
you do that. Sometimes I like to do that because I like to go from the beginning to the end.

252
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:12,240
But when I when I have a minimum amount of time and I recognize that's like, I'm not

253
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,440
going to be done with this in 30 minutes or 15 minutes, however many much time I, I have

254
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,840
allotted to the email on my schedule that day, I go through and I prioritize the 20%.

255
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:25,600
I get them answered and I get them done. If there's if it's an email that can be responded

256
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,800
to right away, I responded to it right away. If it's an email, it's going to take time

257
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:36,000
or I really need to think about the response. I will I will create a time for it on my calendar,

258
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:40,080
but more about that a little bit later. I want to I'm going to talk about that a little

259
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:44,000
bit later. But I do want to remind you, I'm talking about focusing on the 20% of your

260
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,560
email inbox, start with the things that are most important and knock them out. And then

261
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,480
if the time comes where it's like, oh, it's been 30 minutes and there's still 50 emails

262
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:56,360
left to process. You can feel confident you've addressed the most important and you can exit

263
00:21:56,360 --> 00:22:00,040
your inbox for that time, knowing that you can come back later to address the things

264
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:05,920
that are not so important, but not so critical. Now should every email be responded to actually

265
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:10,400
that's that's an important question. Every email doesn't require response for the emails

266
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:14,680
that require response, you do want to respond, they may not be that critical. And so you

267
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:19,120
can take your time to respond. But definitely when it comes to your email inbox, when you

268
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:26,240
open it be very clear about the 20% and create that 20%. Okay, I mean, create that value

269
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:32,040
in your email inbox. Don't let don't don't treat every email the same, right? Don't say,

270
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:36,040
you know, I've got to respond to all 40 all 40 are equally important, you know, they're

271
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:40,920
not. And so prioritize the ones that are important. Okay, number five is to keep your responses

272
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:46,080
short. Okay, this is really important. It took me so many years to learn this. I just

273
00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:50,520
want to just, you know, emphasize the importance of keeping email responses short. Now there

274
00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:55,920
are some emails to which the responses cannot be short. That is the clue that it is not

275
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:02,720
an email, it should be a meeting. And somebody sends you an email, you're like, Oh, no, I've

276
00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:06,280
got to make point number one, and then point number two, point number four, point number

277
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:11,800
five, point number eight, point number 20. Oh, it's like, okay, okay, clearly, maybe

278
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:17,240
it's not an email. Maybe this really should be a conversation. And if you if you recall,

279
00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:22,320
many of these emails are emails that either you're so mad, you're so upset, there's emotion

280
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:27,560
behind an email that's 20, you know, 20 paragraphs long, there's real emotion there. You have

281
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:32,200
to recognize that if it's getting if it's getting long, that should be a conversation

282
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:37,080
happening, it should not be in the email inbox. So I want to encourage you to think if you

283
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:41,840
start to respond to an email, and you're you have three paragraphs, stop and say, should

284
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:47,240
this be an email or should this be a meeting? So my my encouragement to you and again, point

285
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:52,160
number five is keep responses short. So you know, email is a mode of communication, but

286
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:57,040
it's not the only mode of communication. Keep the responses short, hey, we're looking for

287
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:01,720
providers, we're going to take an extra day of call this week, because suddenly somebody's

288
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:06,720
not available to take call, say, yes, I'm available to do it on Friday at 10. On Friday,

289
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:12,000
I can do I can do call from, you know, 8am to noon. Or you say no, I do not have space

290
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:17,920
on my calendar to do this. Keep it short and sweet. Now, if you're writing, hey, I really

291
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:21,880
want to do this. But you know, Friday is like the only day that I have for my administrative

292
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:26,680
day. And I already have a meeting scheduled at my children's daycare. And then I have

293
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:30,480
the appointment with my eye doctor, not been able to create this eye doctor appointment

294
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:35,480
for so long. And then after that, I've scheduled time for like myself massage therapy, and

295
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:40,680
I don't want to really cancel it. I know the call needs to happen. But wow, too much information.

296
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:48,000
Oh, the email is getting too long. And who needs all that information anyway? Please

297
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:52,120
not do it. If that's what you do spend a lot of time explaining, please don't just say

298
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:57,560
yes, I can do it at this time or say no, I'm unavailable. No is a really short sentence.

299
00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:02,480
People say you can just say, Oh, be done. I say, say no and say I'm not available or

300
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:08,840
you can say no, I wish I could say no. Add like a sentence to soften the blow of the

301
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:15,240
no and be done. Don't spend time explaining. Your job in life is not to explain yourself

302
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:19,960
to anybody. Because you know, to be honest, how many explanations do you believe anyway?

303
00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:23,120
Really, you believe none of them. And if you really want an explanation, you pick up the

304
00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:27,120
phone or you page someone and say, Hey, can I understand why you're not available? That's

305
00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:31,120
great. Have a conversation outside your inbox, but your inbox is not really the place where

306
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:37,680
you explain yourself. Keep answers short and pithy and sweet. And again, I'm just talking

307
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,840
about the things that have worked for me. And I would love for you to share about the

308
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:45,400
things that work for you. But short emails are helpful because they help me recognize

309
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:51,360
if an email is becoming long, probably a conversation needs to happen. All right. Number six, create

310
00:25:51,360 --> 00:25:57,120
rules for junk. Okay, create rules for junk. What does that mean? You get so much junk

311
00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:01,240
coming into your email inbox. If you have been in your faculty position for more than

312
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:06,840
a year, wow, the number of things for which I don't even know how you get on those mailing

313
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:11,840
lists, but you clearly do. You get a lot of things that are junky. And to be honest, there's

314
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:18,440
like a list of emails you get that are kind of recurrent. And so create rules. I love

315
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:23,640
the outlook. And that's my email manager, you know, the rules for create for addressing

316
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:29,080
junk. And so I'll say, okay, sweep any message from this provider. And you know, it'll come

317
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:34,000
up like there's a sweep icon. And it says, and then I can, I can set the rule for how

318
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,320
to handle this email in the future. I'll say this email and future emails should go to

319
00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:43,440
deleted items right away. This email and future items should go to newsletters because sometimes

320
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:48,040
I do appreciate the newsletters that come from my society. And once in a while, I don't

321
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,520
mind reading them. I just don't want them in my inbox. And so I'll create rules to send

322
00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:56,240
them to my newsletter folder. Those are the two rules that I have for everything else.

323
00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:00,480
You know, it's either going to go into deleted items right away. Sometimes I find that junk

324
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,560
at like addressing something as junk doesn't always work. And so I'm very clear about the

325
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:10,840
any emails from this email address should go to deleted items right away. And that helps

326
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:15,320
me it helps me declutter the number of things that come into my inbox so that at least most

327
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,520
of the things that are there are things that are important. Now, clearly a lot of things

328
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:25,240
pass through the filter. And so I'm very focused the day I have time for email. And I can do

329
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:29,900
more than just the 20% any email I see that I'm like, Oh, I don't want this in my inbox.

330
00:27:29,900 --> 00:27:34,000
I think instead of just deleting it, I'm going to create a rule to make sure it permanently

331
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,400
doesn't come in again. And you'll find that that does decrease the bulk of the emails

332
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:42,880
that you have. And I recommend that. Okay, create rules for junk. That's number six.

333
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:48,200
Number seven is schedule anything that cannot be responded to immediately for everything

334
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,920
else respond and archive immediately. Okay, that's long. What I'm saying is that there

335
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:58,200
are some emails that are not just it's not just a yes or no response. They're asking

336
00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:03,400
when can you meet for this important thing after which you've after which you've reviewed

337
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:07,000
the paper, right? Well, that's like three things. It's like, well, I need to tell you

338
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,480
when I'm available. So I need to check my calendar and check my schedule. I also need

339
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:17,400
to read this paper. Great after schedule time to read this paper. And, and then I need to

340
00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:21,360
I need to respond to my availability. So the three things that need to happen, that's going

341
00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:27,600
to take probably more than 10 minutes to respond to, right? I think those gosh, I think I've

342
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,920
heard the rule of twos, like if it takes you more than two minutes to handle this email,

343
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:35,320
then you should schedule it. And so schedule the email, put it on your calendar. And it's

344
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:39,600
important because there are a number of things that need to happen for this email to be responded

345
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,200
to. It's not just an email you can you can just address right away. So schedule it, put

346
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:49,360
it on your calendar. So the deadline for this response to the email, they tell you is March

347
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:55,480
15. Perfect. Put it on your calendar for March 14. And put it on your calendar, like actually

348
00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:00,600
create an appointment for that email on your calendar. And think about it, I need 30 minutes

349
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:05,840
to review this article, make comments, and then clarify when I'm available to meet, put

350
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:10,000
it on your calendar for 30 minutes. The great thing about putting it on your calendar for

351
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,680
a day before the deadline is that deadlines force action. Like you could spend two hours

352
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:19,760
reading that calendar that that that article, you could spend two hours and you can spend

353
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:24,520
you can spend three days. But if it's due, then you're going to more likely compress

354
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,800
the time and say it's due, I need to do this right away. I do this honestly, for my grant

355
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:33,480
review. So when I have a grant review responsibilities, and they tell me that, oh, the grant deadline

356
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:41,240
is, you know, on Monday, October 9, yes, I will see how many grants do I need to review?

357
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,440
How long how, what's the reasonable expectation for how much time should be spent reviewing

358
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:49,280
these grants? And then I put them on the calendar for close to the deadline. And that means

359
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:54,400
I don't spend more time reviewing than I absolutely need to. It does mean sometimes I, you know,

360
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:57,800
sometimes you underestimate and then it's like, okay, great. Noted for next time, I

361
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:04,120
need more time. But deadlines force action. And so I use deadlines to my advantage. I

362
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:08,080
schedule any email that needs more time to be responded to, I schedule it close to the

363
00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,600
deadline for the response. And if there's no deadline set in the email, I create my

364
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:15,240
own deadline. I say it's reasonable for me to respond to this email within the next 48

365
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:19,240
hours. Actually, most of these emails that need work, I will ever respond to them next

366
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:23,860
week, I'll put them on my calendar for the following week, and I'll do that. And it allows

367
00:30:23,860 --> 00:30:27,760
me to set aside time for them. As soon as I've scheduled it and put it on the calendar,

368
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,960
I clear it from my inbox, I archive it. That means it's been addressed, or it's going

369
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,360
to be addressed in the future and no longer sits in my inbox. And I'll tell you one hack

370
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:40,840
that I do, and this is something I do probably about once a week is I'll go to inbox zero,

371
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:45,360
I absolutely will. I will set aside a time where I'm like, my goal is to process to inbox

372
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:49,880
zero. Now I've been doing this for a while. So I'm not processing 3000 emails to inbox

373
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:54,560
zero, I guess I did that a few years ago. But I do that now. I'm like, you know, it

374
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,920
may be Thursday, I'm like, I'm processing to inbox zero. And anything that is going

375
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,960
to take a little bit of time, I schedule in the future on my calendar, and then I archive

376
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,540
the email, and everything else that can be responded to, I respond right away, everything

377
00:31:06,540 --> 00:31:10,800
else gets deleted, right? And so I'm able to do that. And it helps me because I feel

378
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:15,560
like, okay, I've done this, and now I have at least 24 hours before I really need to

379
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:20,360
look in the in the email inbox and see what needs to be done. All right, I've shared a

380
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:24,480
lot of things with you today, I'm going to just summarize everything. Number one, recognize

381
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:29,480
how you create value. Number two, master your 20%. And the three limit the space for email.

382
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:34,800
And before respond to the 20% first, and the five keep your responses short, or six, create

383
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:39,520
rules for junk. Number seven, schedule tasks that take a little bit more time and archive

384
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:44,480
everything so that as long as as soon as you scheduled it, it's archived. All right, those

385
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:49,200
are some of the ideas I have for managing email, I'm interested to hear how you manage

386
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:53,400
email. And I'd love for you to share about it. And I want to share that, you know, at

387
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:57,960
the end of the day, this really is about being strategic and intentional, you're the way

388
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,840
the strategies you use are not as important as the fact that you use strategies that you're

389
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:08,160
not just a passive consumer of email, that email somehow is taking over your life. All

390
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:12,160
right, I'm excited to talk to you today about the email inbox, you know, a mentee, you

391
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:16,280
know, a colleague, you know, a mentor, maybe, who needs to listen to this and share with

392
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:20,640
their networks. And I invite you to share this episode widely. Thank you so much for

393
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,440
listening today. It's been a pleasure to talk with you. I look forward to talking with you

394
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:42,840
again on the next episode of the clinician researcher podcast.