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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast, where academic clinicians learn the skills

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to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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As clinicians, we spend a decade or more as trainees learning to take care of patients.

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When we finally start our careers, we want to build research programs, but then we find

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that our years of clinical training did not adequately prepare us to lead our research

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program.

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Through no fault of our own, we struggle to find mentors, and when we can't, we quit.

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However, clinicians hold the keys to the greatest research breakthroughs.

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For this reason, the Clinician Researcher podcast exists to give academic clinicians

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the tools to build their own research program, whether or not they have a mentor.

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Now introducing your host, Toyosi Onwuemene.

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Welcome to the Clinician Researcher podcast.

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I'm your host Toyosi Onwuemene, and it is an absolute pleasure to be talking with you today.

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Thank you so much for tuning in.

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Today I'm talking about getting to inbox zero.

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I had a podcast episode a couple of months ago where I talked about how to manage your

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email inbox.

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Well today I'm talking specifically about the goal of getting to inbox zero because

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inbox zero is like nirvana.

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It's like, oh my gosh, the inbox is empty.

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Everything is completely processed.

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You may snare and say, yeah, that is not my personal goal.

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And I applaud you because yeah, the inbox is not the thing that you should be trying

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to take to inbox zero every time.

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But I do want to acknowledge that getting to inbox zero is pretty awesome.

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And if you've never managed to get to inbox zero, I want you to try it at least once.

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And that does mean deleting a lot of emails or at least archiving them so that they're

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out of sight, out of mind.

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But getting to inbox zero is a big, big, big deal.

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It's also a challenging thing because it's a goal that's not necessarily attainable.

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And even when it is attainable, it's not necessarily in your best interest to process all your emails

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to zero.

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So I want to share with you some thoughts I have about how to get to inbox zero and

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how not to let getting to inbox zero rule your whole life because it can be pretty problematic.

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But one thing to consider before we start to talk about inbox zero is that, oh my goodness,

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email is so overwhelming.

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And if you are like me, you have more than one email inbox.

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So you have your work email inbox, but you probably already have an email inbox personally.

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Maybe you have a couple of personal accounts and possibly your business account.

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You have so many email inboxes.

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But in general, there's probably one or two that are primary.

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And you might even have some email inboxes that you don't really check anymore, even

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though they used to be very prominent and active and now they're not.

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And so it's important to recognize that you have many inboxes, but probably one or two

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are primary.

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I'm really talking specifically about the work inbox because after a while, the work

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inbox becomes pretty prominent, especially the longer you've been at your institution,

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the more emails you get, the more emails just float into your inbox.

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And if for whatever reason you are away from work for even a day or two, you will know

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pretty quickly because your email inbox will fill up really, really quickly.

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So email can be overwhelming.

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And the challenge of email is that even though it doesn't necessarily constitute the bulk

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of the work you do, it's an important medium for communication.

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And there's a certain anxiety that can come from the feeling of the expectation that you

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know is present when people are waiting for you to respond to the email.

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And so email can be overwhelming in many ways.

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And I just want to acknowledge that.

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So why get to inbox your own?

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Well, one of the things about us as humans is we like completion.

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We like to know that we got to the end.

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Now we never will get to the end of email, as long as we're alive.

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And even after we die, emails will still come into our inbox for a long while.

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So email is here to stay with us.

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And if you win the game today, you will surely not have won the game by the time you wake

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up tomorrow.

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And so the only way to keep winning the game all the time is to stay stuck to your inbox,

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answering every email as it comes.

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And you know that not much good can come out of that because you're not able to accomplish

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your work.

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Your writing, your research suffers, seeing patients suffers, everything suffers when

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you make inbox your primary priority.

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So how do you navigate the intricacies of your email while also being productive?

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And that's kind of what we're here to talk about.

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Not necessarily to exalt inbox zero as king, though inbox zero is pretty amazing, but really

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to think about how do we manage email and still be productive as well.

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So the first thing I want to share is that you should find a system to manage your inbox.

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There are so many systems out there and I shared mine in an earlier episode.

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And I don't want to exalt one system over another because you know what?

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A system is a system is a system is a system.

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It's kind of like budgeting.

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Okay, people can, you know, say mint when there used to be a mint and mint is better

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than YNAB or, you know, no, doing it the old fashioned way with the envelopes makes more

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sense.

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It doesn't matter.

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The real win is that there is a system.

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And so whatever system you have, don't judge another system.

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Don't think your system is not good.

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Just find a system you respect and a system that works for you because at the end, what

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is important is not the system you have, but that you actually are intentionally managing

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your email.

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That's what's key.

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And the way you win is by intention.

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And so whatever system you have, if it leads you to intentionally make decisions as far

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as how you manage your email, you are winning.

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So number one, find a system.

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Don't discriminate.

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Don't allow the systems and the numbers that are out there to overwhelm you.

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Don't procrastinate.

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Just find one, choose it and move forward.

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All right.

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Number one, find a system.

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Number two, no matter the system you choose, what is important and consistent is that you

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set specific times for checking your email.

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And so you're going to want to turn off notifications.

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You're going to want to make sure that your email is not always calling your name.

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You don't always see the emails as you come in because I have to tell you, and I think

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this has been demonstrated in a number of publications, is that there is a dopamine

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hit or a dopamine surge that comes with responding to email because there's just a sense of completion.

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Some things happen, some things small.

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You answered something right away.

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And so if you are not careful, you have your email inbox open and you see every email as

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it comes in and you're feeling so accomplished as you're responding to emails and you're

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not really getting anything done because email is not your primary priority.

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And so what's important is to set specific times for checking your email.

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And I want to say one person who really, really helped me a long time ago when I read their

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book is Cal Newport.

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So Cal Newport is a faculty member at an institution, I do not recall, but he's been very productive

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academically and he talks about the importance of deep work.

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So that's the book, Deep Work by Cal Newport and the problem with task switching and the

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residue that's left over when you're trying to switch from one task to the other and how

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important it is to be able to get yourself to the place of deep work before ever you

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go to something that's kind of like inflicting and not very deep like email.

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And so set specific times to check your email inbox.

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And I have to tell you that it's helpful when your mind says, okay, I'm leaving all those

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emails alone, there's going to be specific time I'm going to address the email because

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it allows you to lay down the anxiety and the feeling of what am I missing, what am

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I missing?

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And sometimes the fact that we're in our inboxes all the time is because we have a fear of

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missing out.

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And so set very specific times to check your email and don't deviate from the schedule.

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That's number two.

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Number three says when you do deviate and I'm saying when because you're human and who

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doesn't love a dopamine surge every once in a while, especially when you're writing a

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grant that's very, very tasking or you're writing a paper that you are submitting for

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the fourth time.

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I would love to win, right?

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And so email is a win.

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And so when you do deviate from your schedule, just forgive yourself and just say, oh, I

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did that again.

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Notice it.

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Don't judge it.

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Notice it.

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And you might ask yourself, well, how do I do things differently?

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Oh, maybe I should close the window that shows me when I get an email notification, right?

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What I'm saying is that the pull of email is so strong.

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It is so powerful.

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And that's why we all struggle.

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Most of us, you may not struggle, but I struggle.

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At least I struggle less now than I used to, but still struggling.

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And we're struggling because it's hard because email is such an easy quick fix because we

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can win easily an email because we can feel like we're productive.

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Email, email wins.

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Email works.

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And so when you do deviate from your schedule of not checking your email all the time, or

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when you do accidentally on purpose forget to turn off email notification, or when you

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do check email seven, eight times an hour, just recognize that, oh, I did that again

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and just let it be.

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But forgive yourself, have compassion on yourself, and move on.

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And don't get overwhelmed.

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Don't judge yourself because it doesn't work very well.

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You tend to like come back with a vengeance of being really evil in your checking email.

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Don't judge yourself.

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Just acknowledge that, hey, I did it again and let it be.

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Okay.

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Number four, set aside time to process emails.

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Now setting aside time to process emails is different from checking email.

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You know there's sometimes, I don't know if this is your experience, I'll look through

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my email inbox and say, oh, there is that email that I need to respond to for my division

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sheet, but I'm not ready to do that now.

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Great, I'm not ready because there's a certain kind of headspace I need to be in to be able

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to process certain emails.

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So kind of like you have your schedule and you already have a plan for when you do your

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writing for the day.

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And if you don't, you have to check my episodes about how to schedule your day for maximum

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productivity.

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And for whatever reason, I haven't done that episode, I will do that the next time.

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I'm thinking about it and I'm like, I know I have talked about it, but probably not in

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that exact title, but now I need to and I will, absolutely.

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But as you schedule your day for maximum productivity, you schedule probably the top three things

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that move the needle forward for you, right?

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You hope you're doing that.

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And at some point you've got to schedule email in and it doesn't have to be every day.

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If you have five days in the week, maybe it's twice a week where you really schedule time

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to process emails.

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Now, when I get really busy, sometimes what I'll do is I'll just come in the inbox and

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I'll just look, is there any priority email in there that absolutely needs to be responded

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to right away?

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Also, the time the answer is no, but occasionally there's an email that I want to respond to

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sooner rather than later.

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And then I'll sit down and respond to that and I'll say the rest of you 75,000 emails,

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I'll address you later.

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But then the time comes when I do process email, I set aside time to process emails.

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Now in setting aside time, I don't just set aside time and say, well, let's just see how

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long it takes.

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I have 30 minutes now to dedicate to email.

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Let's do it.

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And I have a system.

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I start from the bottom or sometimes I start from the top.

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You know, if I'm trying to avoid the email at the bottom, I start from the top.

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If I'm trying to avoid the email at the top, I start from the bottom.

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Yes, I am an avoidant when it comes to emails.

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And I finally get to the point where I'm like, I've processed and processed and I finally

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got back to this email that I've been evading and now I have to address it.

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Right?

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I do that quite a bit, but whatever.

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The key is not to judge ourselves, but it's to have a system.

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So set aside time where you process emails, set aside very specific time and you might

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go over.

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So the goal is not to be like rigid and say, well, 30 minutes, I can only process email

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for 30 minutes.

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You might say, okay, well, let me finish this, these last two for the next five minutes.

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And then you do.

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And then you walk away from your email and you're processing, you're on your way to inbox

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zero.

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And I recognize that this episode is my inbox zero, but it puts zero is a, it's a goal that

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you reach for it.

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It may not be one that you reach all the time, but it's a goal you're working towards.

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And the time is coming, you'll be rewarded with inbox zero, but it cannot be your goal

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daily.

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But if you set aside specific periods of time to process email, and so that allows you to

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go through and delete all the stuff that's fluffy.

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And I will tell you, I will share with you, I shared and the other episode I did about

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emails, it's that it's great to use these rules.

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You're like every email that comes from this mailbox should go first to deleted items,

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or you'll say every email that comes from this inbox should go to newsletter.

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So I have two folders.

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Actually, I think I have three, I have the inbox folder, which is standard.

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I'm an archive folder where everything goes that's been processed or addressed and I want

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to keep and no one's really keeping tabs on my inbox quota.

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So whatever everything goes to archive.

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And I have a newsletter folder and that's where my table of contents come in and my

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newsletters that I care about because I want the newsletters, but I want to go look for

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them in my own time.

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I don't want them in my inbox because I get so many emails and it would just be nice to

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keep out the stuff that's absolutely not needed.

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So yeah, those are my three folders, the regular inbox folder, the archive folder, and then

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the newsletters folder.

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Everything else just gets archived and I'm so grateful for the search feature.

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I can always find anything I want whenever I want it.

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But it's processed, it's out of my email inbox.

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What does processing mean?

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What does processed mean?

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Processed means I've read the email and I've responded or I have put it on my calendar to

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do whatever is needed at that time.

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For example, let's say I get in my email inbox an invitation to review a journal and I've

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said yes against my better judgment, review a manager for a journal and I've said yes

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against my better judgment.

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Then I schedule it.

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I say the review is due on the 18th.

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I need to schedule you for the 17th.

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Actually I schedule for the 17th and I invariably will push forward to the 18th and maybe might

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make the submission by the 19th.

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But you know, I just move to the deadline so I don't spend too much time on it and so

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the deadline forces me to actually move and do the work that's supposed to be done.

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So those things I put on my calendar and I actually will put on my calendar for a set

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time.

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So I'm like, this would take me 30 minutes to review this article.

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And so I put 30 minutes on the calendar and it's out of my inbox.

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Like I've put it on the calendar.

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It can now leave my inbox and I'll archive it.

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Okay.

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If for whatever reason I forgot the link, then I can search my computer and I can find

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it but it's out of my inbox because it's already been addressed.

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If there's an email that I couldn't care less who it's from and I'm like, what are you doing

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in my inbox?

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I will make sure that I create a rule to keep it out of my inbox the next time and then

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I delete it and it's processed.

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And then I get these email notifications from my workplace.

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They want me to do this.

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You haven't completed this.

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And you know, I do want to get those because sometimes they come with, if you don't complete

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in the next five days, we will suspend your privileges.

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Yeah.

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Those are a little bit dramatic, but I want to get those when they come through.

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And so I won't necessarily put rules on those.

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I will let them sit in my inbox, but I will put them on the calendar.

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Like oh, compliance training is due on June 30th.

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Great.

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I'll put it on the calendar for June 29th so that I'm driven to do it at the right time.

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Anyway, so that's what I mean by process.

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It's like addressing things.

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Either you've responded right away and usually I heard the rule of thumb and this is from,

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gosh, who's the Matt?

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Who was one of the big, big productivity gurus?

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I do not remember their name, but if I remember it, I'll put it in the show notes.

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They talk about if it takes less than two minutes, go ahead and just respond right away.

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If it's going to take more than two minutes, then schedule it for a different time.

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And I use the deadline usually to drive when I schedule.

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And it's up to you.

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Sometimes you want to respond to an email that takes more than two minutes and you're

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like, I'm processing email now.

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I want to do that.

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Great.

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And sometimes you're like, I want to do it later.

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And that's up to you.

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But definitely set aside time to process emails.

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And when that time is done, wrap up and be done and just satisfy yourself.

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They're going to come back again and process it again, but just keep working towards inbox

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zero.

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Okay.

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So number five, I've kind of talked about in the act of processing emails, you do want

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to fill your calendar with things that do need to be done in your email inbox.

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For example, oh, your privileges are coming due and you need to complete these forms before

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your privileges expire.

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Great.

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When is the application due again?

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Great.

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It's due June the 30th.

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I'm going to put on my calendar for June the 28th.

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Whatever it is that works.

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But once it's on the calendar, then you're committed to it.

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I don't know about you, but if it's on the calendar, it's real.

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It's happening because it's on the calendar.

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And so that's what I do.

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And I put things on my calendar so that it gets done.

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And it's a real meeting.

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It's not just on my calendar, just floating in space.

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Like it really is a meeting.

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And when I go to do my weekly planning meeting, identify the things on my calendar and I put

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them in my priority list to do that week because I've committed to them.

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But definitely fill your calendar with items for your inbox that need to be addressed in

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the future and then archive.

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When it's time, you can look for them if you need to.

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But sometimes what I'll do is I'll copy and paste the email into like a note and then

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I can search my notes when it's time so I won't get tempted to start messing around

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my inbox, which invariably I get distracted.

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Definitely fill your calendar with items that need to be addressed in the future, at a future

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date.

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Okay.

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Number six is really important.

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Don't try to get to inbox zero every day.

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It's such a wonderful goal.

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And in reality, if you're getting to inbox zero every day, you're spending too much time

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in email.

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It takes time to get to inbox zero.

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It absolutely does.

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And you know, you get to inbox zero and then all of a sudden it's like, no, I got three

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more emails.

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I'm not an inbox zero.

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And that's why it's important to not try to make it a goal every day because, you know,

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invariably you're never going to get there.

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But in that, I mean, gosh, I don't want to be discouraging.

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You always need to get there.

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But when you get there, you recognize that someone's going to come and break your inbox

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zero and it's going to be okay.

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One of the things I do is to sometimes work towards inbox zero on Friday.

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So I may not try to work towards it throughout the week.

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I'm kind of like, you know, triaging email throughout the week and I'm processing for

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like 30 minutes at a time.

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But towards Friday, I try to get to inbox zero on Fridays.

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Fridays are my administrative day.

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And one of the good things about processing to inbox zero on Friday is that I don't check

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my email Saturday or Sunday and I don't need to.

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I'm like, whoever sends me an email after hours on Friday, it's just, you know, they

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can't expect that I'm going to respond before hand and I don't respond.

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And I know there's a culture where people feel like you should be checking your inbox

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all the time.

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I do not subscribe to that culture.

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And if you do, I hope you will unsubscribe.

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But for me anyway, it feels good just to say I've processed.

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I'm an inbox zero on Friday.

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Sign our email inbox.

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I don't even have to look at you till Monday afternoon because I'm not obligated to respond

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to emails at the beginning of the day.

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I don't tend to do that.

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So anyway, don't try to get inbox zero every day.

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Work towards a certain day of the week.

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And it may be Monday where you're like, great, I've allowed emails to pile up since Thursday

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last week.

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Let me now address them at the end of the day, Monday.

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It doesn't have to be Friday.

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For me, Friday is useful because I have more time than usual because it's an administrative

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day to process email on Fridays.

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And I love the idea of just shutting down for the weekend and saying, I'm done.

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I'm shut down complete and then I don't have to check anything at all till Monday because

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I know I've done well.

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And so yes, don't try to get inbox zero every day.

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And just sometimes you get there and sometimes you don't, but just don't make it your goal,

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even though it's a great thing to be able to accomplish.

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All right.

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Number seven is that we do get to inbox zero.

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You should celebrate.

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You should totally celebrate.

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And I don't mean celebrate, like take yourself out to a party or have dinner, though, if

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that's what you want to do, that's great.

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But just celebrate like internally, like say, great, I did it and then close the inbox.

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Don't open it again.

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Don't check 10 minutes later to say, am I still an inbox zero?

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No.

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This is why if you're trying to work towards inbox zero, it's good to do it at the end

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of something, maybe at the end of the day, the end of the weekend or something like that,

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where it's like there was an end.

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You can walk away and not come back until the beginning happens again.

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Right.

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But if you say I got into inbox zero and then 10 minutes later, you're like, well, let me

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just check my email.

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You will be disappointed.

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You won't be at inbox zero anymore.

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And then you'll be like, upset.

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So get to the end of inbox zero, get to the end of a thing, celebrate, do your inbox zero

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and then celebrate it and walk away from your email.

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Walk away.

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But there's a good feeling.

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It's a good feeling when you get to inbox zero, but you have to recognize that the work

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you do is bigger than responding to emails.

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And yes, email is a form of communication and so it's part of the work that we do.

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But it is important to move the needle forward on your own writing, on your own research

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before you even really start to process the inbox.

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So please, I'm asking, I'm recommending that you don't ever process email until you've

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actually completed your work for the day.

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For me, that's a minimum of 30 minutes of writing, usually at least 90 minutes a day.

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Like I have done my work, I've completed this manuscript revision, I can now process email.

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And so I don't start email at the beginning of the day for that reason.

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Sometimes when I do, it's because I either schedule the email from the night before,

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I do that quite a bit, or I'll wake up early in the morning and do some writing and then

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I can do some email.

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So anyway, just celebrate and then walk away.

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All right, summarizing the seven things that I said about getting to inbox zero number

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one, find any system and use it.

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Number two, set specific times for checking your email.

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Number three, when you do deviate from those specific times, forgive yourself, notice it

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and move on.

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Number four, set aside time to process emails, like really process them, getting them out

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of your inbox by archiving or putting them on the calendar.

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Number five, fill your calendar with items that need to be addressed in the future.

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Number six, don't try to get to inbox zero every day.

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And number seven, when you do get to inbox zero, celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.

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All right, are you overwhelmed by emails?

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Are you struggling?

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Are you challenged?

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00:23:18,860 --> 00:23:20,300
Do you need help?

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I'd love to be your coach to coach you through how to work through your inbox.

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I'd love you to reach out to me by DM, especially on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook and Instagram

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and let me know how I can help you.

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It's been a pleasure talking with you today.

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I look forward to seeing you again on the next episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast.

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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Clinician Researcher Podcast, where academic

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00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:56,180
clinicians learn the skills to build their own research program, whether or not they

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have a mentor.

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If you found the information in this episode to be helpful, don't keep it all to yourself.

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Someone else needs to hear it.

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00:24:05,580 --> 00:24:09,620
So take a minute right now and share it.

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00:24:09,620 --> 00:24:15,100
As you share this episode, you become part of our mission to help launch a new generation

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of clinician researchers who make transformative discoveries that change the way we do healthcare.