Episode 47: Conquering Email and Inbox Zero with Curt Rees

In this episode we are joined by Curt Rees, Elementary Principal and Recess Kickball legend in Onalaska, Wisconsin. Curt’s school is recognized by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as a model school for their implementation of Response to Intervention.  Curt is also a current doctoral student at UKSTL. You can find Curt online at @CurtRees and http://curtrees.com/ Curt is also mentioned in chapter 4 of Spike’s book, Connected Leadership.

 

Some of Curt's Email Wisdom:

Don’t sit down and browse email. Sit down and “crank” through them when you’re ready to work on them. Don’t touch an email more than once. Decide on your action for it once you read it. If it takes more than 2 minutes to respond, he sends it to his to-do app (OmniFocus) to schedule when to work on it. Don’t let a read email sit in your inbox, schedule it and get it out of your inbox!

Curt recommends not having work email on your phone and was so convincing that Jessica “ripped the bandaid” off and took work email off of her phone while listening to Curt explain why.  Can you do it?

 

Curt’s Top 5 Tips:

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (or anything by David Allen)

Have a system: this is beyond just email, to keep track of what you’re going to do and when

Don’t let email dictate how you’re going to spend your time. Our jobs are busy enough!  Make yourself available in other ways.

Don’t let your email inbox be your to-do list!

Don’t clutter up anyone else’s email inbox. Recognize when you need to go and talk instead of sending an email.

 

Other resources/thoughts on email...

OmniFocus

http://five.sentenc.es/

IFTTT If This Then That

Jessica’s blog post: The Email Monster

Nudgemail