Batch processing email
Sit down once and clear thirty or a hundred messages in a run
Messages land all day and go unanswered on purpose. You work the whole queue in one sitting instead. The argument is that the cost of email is the switching rather than the typing, so grouping the replies removes most of the damage to a working day. A single pass clears everything that arrived since the last one. Some people bolt it to fixed hours. Others just refuse to open the inbox in between. One common variation opens a writing session with a few easy replies, to get the fingers moving before the hard page.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Adam GrantDoes it
Organizational psychologist · Think Again
He will not answer a single message at random. Thirty, forty or a hundred go through in one sitting instead. On writing days he deliberately opens with a few easy replies, because a flashing cursor is a worse place to start than an inbox.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #399 transcript
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under productivity or focus.
- HabitFREE, no cost
Daily reading
A fixed daily reading block, usually books rather than feeds
On record from 25 of 62 tracked people: 23 do it, 2 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Early rising
A fixed, early wake time, often before anyone else is awake
On record from 11 of 62 tracked people: 10 do it, 1 has discussed it - HabitFREE, no cost
Daily writing
Write something every day, published or not
On record from 10 of 62 tracked people: 8 do it, 2 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Phone-free first hour
No email, news or social media until you have done something of your own
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it, 2 recommend it - HabitFREE, no cost
Margin notes
Writing in the margins while reading, especially where you disagree with the author
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it, 1 recommends it - HabitFREE, no cost
Thinking retreats
Blocks of time cleared of the schedule to sit with one hard problem
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it, 1 has discussed it
Habit entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.