{"id":53202,"date":"2022-03-28T02:30:25","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T02:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/?p=53202"},"modified":"2022-10-10T09:26:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T14:26:51","slug":"3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a high achiever, you probably pride yourself on how much you get done. But one area always feels like a mess: your email. You\u2019re inundated with a constant barrage of communications. There\u2019s email itself, plus emails about other communications elsewhere\u2014like calendar notifications, Slack messages, or notifications from your task-management platforms. Will it ever end?<\/span><\/p>\n

There <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> be an end, but it\u2019ll only come when you stop reacting to the messages and take control of your inbox. Here are three steps to go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Determine Who Will Have Access to You<\/b><\/h3>\n

The busier you become, the less and less availability you have to offer others. So ask yourself, <\/span>Who really needs access to me?<\/span><\/i> It might seem cold, but it\u2019s about segmenting your communication and stewarding your time. You only have so much time, energy, and mental bandwidth. At some point, you have to stop giving attention to low-leverage messages. Because the truth is, there\u2019s probably someone else who\u2019s better suited to address the needs somebody is reaching out about. Here are a few more questions to ask to narrow this down: <\/span>Are you the best person to respond to this kind of message? Does this person need a personal response from you to do their work? Could someone else respond and produce the same result?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

2. Automate<\/b><\/h3>\n

Create email rules to direct messages by sender and subject. For example, all emails that are high priority can go to your inbox, while things like subscriptions and newsletters go elsewhere. Another strategy is to use email templates to respond faster to routine requests. If you sense you\u2019re getting similar emails over and over, and feel like you\u2019re writing the same responses again and again, pull up your email template, personalize it, and be done. The key here is to keep things out of your inbox that are low priority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Set Expectations<\/b><\/h3>\n

Do this according to your schedule and preferences. First, you want to decide what your response time will be. For example, will it be 24 hours? Forty-eight hours? A week? Whatever you decide, if you set the expectation on the front end, people will usually accept it. Second, you want to decide how often you\u2019ll communicate. This might mean you only check email a couple times a day, but at specific times. What you\u2019ll see happen is, as you establish what can be expected of you, it will become the default expectation of the people <\/span>around <\/span><\/i>you. And, if you\u2019re a leader, whatever you do will be mirrored by your team. So be intentional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Don\u2019t be distracted all the time. It\u2019s <\/span>your<\/span><\/i> email, and you can take charge of it instead of the other way round. By following these three steps, you can stop being the bottleneck on communications. And you\u2019ll gain miles of mental bandwidth to spend on your most important tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":53203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,29],"tags":[90,163,77,15,54],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Full Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-620929423.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2119\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1414\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Hyatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@michaelhyatt\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Hyatt\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/e326267e17b1b742f4062fcbd4fdfff7\"},\"headline\":\"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\"},\"wordCount\":507,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"email\",\"Inbox Zero\",\"overwhelm\",\"Personal Development\",\"personal productivity\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Personal Development\",\"Productivity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\",\"name\":\"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/\",\"name\":\"Full Focus\",\"description\":\"Win at Work and Succeed at Life\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Full Focus\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Full-Focus-Logo-Tan.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Full-Focus-Logo-Tan.svg\",\"width\":805,\"height\":178,\"caption\":\"Full Focus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fullfocusplanner\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/e326267e17b1b742f4062fcbd4fdfff7\",\"name\":\"Michael Hyatt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96062f5af6c86933efd0adddcb29204f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96062f5af6c86933efd0adddcb29204f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael Hyatt\"},\"description\":\"Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of Full Focus. He has scaled multiple companies over the years, including a $250M publishing company with 700+ employees and his own leadership development company that has grown over 60% year over year for the past 4 years. Under his leadership, Full Focus has been featured in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America for three years in a row and in 2020 the company was named to Inc.\u2019s Best Work Places list. He is also the author of several New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling books, including Platform, Living Forward, Your Best Year Ever, Free to Focus and his newest book The Vision Driven Leader. He enjoys The Double Win with his wife of 40+ years, five daughters, and nine grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michaelhyatt\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/author\/michaelhyatt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus","description":"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus","og_description":"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.","og_url":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/","og_site_name":"Full Focus","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/michaelhyatt","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\/","article_published_time":"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2119,"height":1414,"url":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/GettyImages-620929423.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael Hyatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@michaelhyatt","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael Hyatt","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/e326267e17b1b742f4062fcbd4fdfff7"},"headline":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox","datePublished":"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/"},"wordCount":507,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization"},"keywords":["email","Inbox Zero","overwhelm","Personal Development","personal productivity"],"articleSection":["Personal Development","Productivity"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/","url":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/","name":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox | Full Focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-03-28T02:30:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-10T14:26:51+00:00","description":"Don\u2019t let your focus be fragmented. Go from inbox overwhelm to an inbox oasis every single day by following these 3 steps.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocusplanner.com\/3-steps-to-overcome-your-inbox\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"3 Steps to Overcome Your Inbox"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/","name":"Full Focus","description":"Win at Work and Succeed at Life","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#organization","name":"Full Focus","url":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Full-Focus-Logo-Tan.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Full-Focus-Logo-Tan.svg","width":805,"height":178,"caption":"Full Focus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/michaelhyatt","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fullfocusplanner\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/e326267e17b1b742f4062fcbd4fdfff7","name":"Michael Hyatt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96062f5af6c86933efd0adddcb29204f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96062f5af6c86933efd0adddcb29204f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael Hyatt"},"description":"Michael Hyatt is the founder and chairman of Full Focus. He has scaled multiple companies over the years, including a $250M publishing company with 700+ employees and his own leadership development company that has grown over 60% year over year for the past 4 years. Under his leadership, Full Focus has been featured in the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America for three years in a row and in 2020 the company was named to Inc.\u2019s Best Work Places list. He is also the author of several New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling books, including Platform, Living Forward, Your Best Year Ever, Free to Focus and his newest book The Vision Driven Leader. He enjoys The Double Win with his wife of 40+ years, five daughters, and nine grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/fullfocus.co","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/michaelhyatt\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/michaelhyatt"],"url":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/author\/michaelhyatt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}