One simple rule has saved me SO much of that most precious of commodities: time.
When I check my inbox…
If there’s something that will take 2-minutes or less to take care of… then I do it right there and then.
No shuffling things off to a todo list. Clicking “Snooze.” Or pretending it’s not there.
It really has saved me bunch of time.
And even helped me reach that esoteric state of “inbox zero” on multiple occasions.
(Although, sometimes I might have cheated by dumping a whole bunch of emails I wanted to forget about into another folder! 🤣)
I picked up the 2-minute rule a while back when I went on a productivity bender with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system.
Over the years it’s helped me avoid accumulating piles of tiny little jobs that still need doing.
You know? The kind that gang up in the back of your mind… and bang pots and pans at 3 in the morning?
It’s a simple tip. But can be quite effective.