Like you, I subscribe to a number of email newsletters that I consider to be inspirational, interesting or plain useful to me. Because the 80/20 Rule is ruthless, some are obviously more valuable than others. These are the ones I want to make time to feed upon. That means I must keep them outside my 4D Triage and Execute process in my inbox because, of course, I want that to be empty after each 4D visit. After all, maintaining Inbox zero is critical to working smarter on what has to be done in a busy day.

So, what do I do? Simple really. I have a numbered inbox subfolder (Called ‘07 Sharpen the saw’ since you asked) and then I have an Outlook Email Rule (Tools> Rules and Alerts) set up to divert these select senders into that folder for a more meaningful Read > Consider > Action process.

Why not go beyond tips now and deep-dive into serious, sustainable and integrated workload, priority and time management approaches with our specialist productivity training and support. Just hit the iceberg graphic and let me know what you want

I still run the 4D process on the other newsletters along with my other unfiltered emails in my inbox and if one strikes me as important in that initial triage I simply drag that into the 07 folder for later review.