How I Answer Email in 17 Minutes a Day - My System

Most of us spend more hours every day on email than we think. I spend about 17 minutes per day. How? I only touch each email once. In this video, I'll teach you my system - for Gmail or any platform.

Today's guest: Marc Koenig

CHAPTERS:
00:00 5 Steps To Inbox Zero
00:10 PART 1: THEORY
00:11 Step 1: The Essentials
00:27 Step 2: Simply Your Email System
00:41 Step 3: Set Up Your Downstream Systems
00:51 The 4 Essential Productivity Systems
01:20 Step 4: Streamline Your Workflow
01:41 Step 5: Make Triage Decisions
02:08 PART 2: IMPLEMENTATION (Real-Time Demo ft Marc)
02:39 Step 1: Unsubscribing from Emails/Newsletters (Live Demo)
04:13 Step 2: Streamline Email System (Live Demo)
05:39 Step 3: 4 Productivity Systems (Live Demo)
05:48 1. Calendar: Google Calendar (Live Demo)
06:02 2. Task Manager: Things (Live Demo)
08:25 3. Notes App: Evernote (Live Demo)
10:18 4. Read Later App: Instapaper (Live Demo)
11:51 Step 4: Streamline System (Live Demo)
12:27 1. Turn On Auto-Drive
13:05 2. Turn On Keyboard Shortcuts
13:36 3. Turn On Conversation View
14:10 Step 5: Categorize Emails
16:59 How To Create Your Second Brain?

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[ShehanDyonisius]

Thought Elon Musk had uploaded a video on how to reply to mail for a second

[Blooprint]

Wow! I rarely comment, but this is one of the best tutorial styles I have seen. Showcasing a beginner's perspective feels like a live mentoring session to me. It is so satisfying to see how Marc makes decisions and starts implementing the shortcuts step-by-step. I will definitely try this out as I just started an office job involving a lot of emails. Please make more videos in this style!

[ramonnone]

This was one of the most natural but effective tutorials i have seen in a long time

[tomasmontana]

8:42 This is great! A tip if you do this: create a filter in Gmail, so every time a message from, say, a newsletter comes in, it gets automatically forwarded to your Evernote (you can do this in the sliders icon to the right of the search bar, and pressing "create filter" at the bottom)

[andrewmisiura]

Just archived 111k emails 100 at a time. Took about 3 hours and I feel so good. Thank you for the inspiration!

[ActsofLove]

Mind blowing -- I love this! Just went from 1400 emials to 1300 emails in 10 minutes. I am so excited to continue this tomorrow and get to inbox zero! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[dareptor]

Me: Mom, can we have Elon Musk?

Mom: We have Elon Musk at home.

Elon Musk at home:

[peterschmidt]

In Google Mail, I like to keep the categories on so it's an easy way of pre-sorting my inbox. As I generally only use Gmail for non-essential emails (like social, shopping and occasional emails) it makes it easy to presort into categories as I know 80% of the mails will be deleted after I read them.

But makes perfect sense if you're using another email client on your PC for important emails. Then I basically use something similar for the inbox and a local yearly storage (i.e 2021-2022, 2022-2033 etc) with subcategories. Makes it very easy to archive by year when I don't need the emails anymore. And it's only a click away to close and hide it, but still there if needed.

One thing also when going though emails, is to assess how long it's going to take to do. If it's something quick (under a minute like unsubscribing), then just do it then and there instead of creating a task. Otherwise you may not be looking at an email more than once, but instead turned it into a task that you'll probably look at more than once.

[jessicaangelas]

Great video! After overcoming some anxiety of changing my existing system of 7+ years and implementing this I have to say "I should have done this years ago!" Thanks for sharing and I truly feel a weight lifted, like I have much more time, and that I am more on top of my day-to-day.

[tystorz]

I appreciate that this video is also 17minutes.

[marcgosselin]

this video is a gold mine. the amount of time and stress I can save setting this up is insane. thank you!

[MelissaGregorySimon]

I am loving my empty inbox! The concept of handling each email only once reshapes habits into smoother workstream!

[GeoffreyReemer]

Great video and awesome description of the process. I had already implemented it after reading your blog article about Inbox Zero and it was absolutely life changing to me. Thanks for giving me back control over my digital life!

[phunt]

I love love that you were teaching someone else. He asked the questions that I would ask....awesome video

[markusmuller]

Thanks for the video. Personally I like that you show the routine in practise and not only explain it theoretically.

[Killerkom]

The general rule is, if you unsubscribe from fishing mails, they know this mail exists, and you get a ton more.
Unsubscribing should only be done if you are 100% sure this is secure. Else set it to spam!
Important security advice!

[BenWilliams-ywus]

This has improved my workflow more than anything else I’ve tried.

Thinking of email as a receiver and not a working space.

[tianag]

This video made me do a lot of changes in my email settings that I won't be doing otherwise. Really happy about trying out the new way! Love The Second Brain book and amazing knowledge you are sharing.

[paulahunt]

I love that Mark is doing this. Please have an update for 2023

[richie]

This is the first video of yours I’ve come across. Great job! I really appreciated how you walked us through a real life example of how to set this up, including your thought process. Can’t wait to check out more of your content.