The 5-minute email rule that changed how I work

We’re all drowning in email. And if you’re spending 15 minutes on every reply, no productivity system is ever going to save you. Not inbox zero, not batching, not turning off notifications—nothing. Your only hope is retirement.

My rule: I never spend more than five minutes writing a work email. And when I manage other people, it’s a rule I ask them to follow, too. Ideally, each email will take 30 seconds to write—then, even if you write 100 emails a day, it’s still only an hour of your day, but five minutes is the max.

I call this rule the five-minute rule, and it’s how I do work email. I also think it’s how you should do work email, so here I’ll give you some suggestions for how to make it happen.

You might think I sound like a jerk here, and I am one. But I don’t come across as a jerk in my emails, despite how little time I spend on them. This is in marked contrast to what Katie Notopoulos from BuzzFeed calls the “boss email”:

It’s defined by nearly immediate—but short and terse—replies. The classic two-word email. For underlings, it can be inscrutable. Is that an angry “thanks” or a grateful “thanks”? Does “please update me” imply impatience with you? Boss email can be the workplace equivalent of getting a “k” text reply from a Tinder date.

But writing quickly and concisely doesn’t have to come off as cold or impenetrable. It takes just as long to write “Hey, any updates here? Thanks!” as it does to write “Where are we on this?” Even getting rid of the potentially disingenuous “Thanks!” feels a thousand times more approachable than the latter option.

You can turn the five-minute rule into the three-minute rule, the one-minute rule, or the 30-second rule. Whatever makes the most sense for the role you’re in. For example, if you’re often communicating with contractors who need unique feedback, you might need those five minutes. If you’re mostly communicating with your coworkers, it should probably be 30 seconds—or less.

Source: Fastcompany.com

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