The only course you will ever need to get your business emails under control!

Course Content (6 Parts)

• Part 1 – Mindsets & Problems – How Emails Destroy Productivity
• Part 2 – Smart Emailing – Creating Emails Correctly
• Part 3 – The Email Charter – 10 Rules Against the Email Spiral
• Part 4 – The “@1-2-3-Plus-System” – Organizing Emails Wisely
• Part 5 – Inbox Zero and the “FASD Principle” – Mastering the Email Inbox
• CONCLUSION – The Final Rules to Internalize Effective Mail Management

Part 5 – Inbox Zero and the “FASD Principle” – Mastering the Email Inbox

Now that you have the framework of your system in place, let us introduce you to a simple 4-step process to handle every email smart & quickly: The “FASD Principle”. This technique is action-focused. The most important habit you should implement is the INSTANT DECISION!

In practice, this means, each email is opened only once and processed directly based on these four options:

• Forward
• Action
• Schedule
• Delete

Here are the instructions for implementing the “FASD Principle” into your workday and supercharging your productivity:

F = Forward

Forward the email, if

• it concerns someone else, or
• the task is to be done by someone else, or
• it can be delegated to someone else.

(Documents for which you are waiting for an answer, completion, etc. by a third party should be moved to the folder “@3 – waiting” for regular follow-up).

Delete or archive the email afterward.

A = Action

Read and take note of, and if necessary,

• reply to, or
• complete the task immediately,

if something needs to be done that takes no more than 5 minutes.

Delete or archive the email afterward.

S = Schedule

Add the task to the (digital) to-do list and, if necessary, schedule it specifically, if something needs to be done that requires more time.

Copy the necessary information from the mail into the task and/or move the email into the folder “@1 – ACTION!”.

Extensive texts that only need to be read can be moved to the folder “@2 – read”.

Delete or archive the email afterward.

D = Delete

Delete the email immediately if it is unimportant information, advertising, spam, and the like.

7 Basic Rules for Productive Email Management

1. Unsubscribe from all newsletters that you hardly ever read anyway and turn off all status notifications.
2. Disable all email notification signals (tones, pop-ups, etc.) to avoid ongoing disruptions. (This also applies to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets).
3. Review and process email inbox (incl. @-folders) once or several times a day in blocks and reverse chronologically.
4. Normally, each email is opened only once and processed immediately based on the “FASD principle”!
5. Every email request should be answered within 2 working days – at least with a piece of intermediate information.
6. Emails in the “Pre-Archive” folder are checked once a week and then moved to “Archive” or deleted.
7. For absences longer than one day, the automatic out-of-office reply should be activated.

To conclude…

CONCLUSION – The Final Rules to Internalize Effective Mail Management