Awesome
N days later self-management method
This is a management method which is roughly based on 43Folders and Getting Things Done.
You should focus on one thing at once.... but not too long.
You do sequential processing of all messages.
Goal: Zero Inbox like explained in this video: https://youtu.be/z9UjeTMb3Yk
Up to now, I know only one software which supports it (modwork). But Gmail and Fastmail have a "snooze" feature, which can be used for this. (Gmail Snooze, Fastmail Snooze)
I use the term "message". This could be an issue in a issue tracking system, an email or a piece of paper if you prefer this. In my context, I mostly use it for mails.
I use the term "inbox" to refer to all messages which are waiting for you to get read or done.
Since January 2020 I use Gmail for my emails/messages.
Step1: Take the first message of your inbox
Take the first message of your inbox. Avoid looking at the list of all messages in your inbox. The message you take should be the newest (the one that arrived just some minute ago).
Step2: Act
Case1: If you can handle this message in less than five minutes, then do it now. Mark the message as "done". It should be possible to do mark the message as "done" without moving the fingers from the keyboard to the mouse. The keyboard shortcut should be easy since you will use it often. Goto Step1.
Case2: You need more information to handle this message? Ask for more info. If the content/topics changes, then please create a new message.
You replied and asked for information. What now? We are all just humans. Your question will likely get lost because the other person is very busy. This means we need a way to resubmit the current message n days (in short "+N"). It depends on the context of how long. Maybe +3. This means: put this message to hold and the system should resubmit this message three days later. If today is Monday, then on Thursday should be automatically back in your inbox. Then you can check if you receieved the answer you asked for. Details for the +N spec are below. Now take next mail and goto Step1
Case3: This message is unimportant information? Delete it. Is there a way to avoid this in the future? (For example: unsubscribe from a useless newsletter). Again: Deleting should be possible without moving the fingers from the keyboard to the mouse. Take the next mail and goto Step1.
Case4: A telephone call is needed. Do it. Then write some notes of this conversation into the message. Then mark the message as "done" or +N. The Gmail plugin simple notes is very handy to attach notes to emails.
Case5: You are unsure what to do. No problem, let's think about this again next week: +7. If it can't wait that long, then think about this again tomorrow: +1. If it was important, but not urgent, then +30 helps to think about this again in one month.
Case6: You want to do this today, but not now. Use "+" without a number. This will let the message sleep for one hour.
Step4: Auto-advance
As soon as you mark an message as done or you use +N the next message should be opened. Like a flipbook.
After your action on the first mail, it is feasible to see the next message.
In Gmail unfortunately (by default) you see the list of the messages in your inbox. If you want to change this setting in Gmail go to settings/advanced and enable "auto-advance".
If you see the list of all messages in your inbox, your eyes go up and down and you are not in an actionable state. You can't act on all messages at once.
Notes
In the past, I made a distinction between deleting an message and marking it as done. Today I just mark everything as done. I try to save energy (if work can be avoided, then I avoid it). Creating two different groups ("done" and "deleted") brings me hardly any value.
Compared to tennis or badminton
I compare this to playing tennis or badminton. There is one ball flying into your direction. It is up to you to hit the ball forward. Then comes the next ball. There not several balls at once and there is no ball behind you.
As soon as there are two messages at once the blood pressure raises.
+N Details
+N with N being a number between 1 and 31. Greater numbers should not get accepted. This avoids typos. Example 311 if you mean "31".
+Nw "w" means "weeks". Numbers greater than 20 should not get accepted.
+Nm "m" means "months".
Create your messages
Most messages in my systems get created by me. A lot of ideas come to my mind if I cycle from work to home. Then I stop at the next possible place and create a new message for me. I do this by writing a mail to my email account at work. I think this is a good way to keep your head free. This way I know this won't get forgotten. Especially on Friday evening and want to leave the work at work and be open for my wife and family.
Low latency
If the system which does provide "n days later method" is slow, it won't be fun. Latency is crucial.
Keyboard only mode
The basic actions need to be doable with your fingers resting on the keyboards. There should be no need to switch to the mouse.
Mail-User-Agent?
At work I had (modwork), but at home, I don't have it.
With Gmail it works. See Snooze an email in Gmail.
Solutions still welcome
Up to now, I could not find a matching software that gives me what all I need. If you have a hint, this would be great, please tell me!
Why not GANTT?
GANTT Charts are nice. You define the dependency (precedence network) relationships between messages and you get a fancy colorful chart. Maybe this is better than pushing messages into the future again and again. But +N is much easier. But why "A vs B"? A system could have both (dependencies between messages and +N) :-)
I have a lot of small messages. I would waste too much time creating a dependency between messages. Sometimes I attach a note to an message: "First xyz, then this message". This hint points me in the right direction when the message pops up again N days later.
I think +N is more for personal messages (like mail inbox) and Gantt more for a project where the messages are handled by several people.
Learning
You can use +N for learning. If the content of the message is well known than you can use +12m (one year). If you think you need to learn this again. Then maybe +10 (ten days) is the right choice.
micromanagement
this is micromanagement? Yes, it is.
but micromanagement is evil!
yes, it is evil if you micromanage someone, or if you get micromanaged.
but if you micromanage yourself, then it's fun - if you like it.
Stress
You think "keeping track of a lot of small things is stress"?
My blood pressure immediately raises if several things need to get done at the same time.
But using the above method is deeply relaxed. You do one thing after the other.
Just like playing tennis or badminton: hit-observe-move, hit-observe-move, ...
It's fun, not stress.
Stress would arise as soon as there are two instead of one ball.
Close your eyes and imagine this. Playing with one ball lets you focus on one thing and you can act appropriately.
But two balls at once ... your human brain is not capable to handle this!
You only have 15 minutes?
If you have a lot of appointments, then what do you do in the 15 minutes between two video/phone calls?
With n-days-later this is easy. Just start the funky bullshit loop and work on one message after the other until the next appointment starts.
Without such a system your head would need to do a very difficult task: It would need to find an message to work on.
With n-days-later, this kind of thinking is not needed. Since the latest entry is automatically the next one. If there is no new item, then the snoozed messages are your next messages. I love it if I can avoid thinking :-)
Asking and Nagging
In the hope to find a perfect n-days-later system for me I am asking and nagging from time to time:
https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/62192/inbox-zero-tool
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56292398/hide-snooze-issues-in-youtrack (The corresponding issue at youtrack has already three up-votes)
https://github.com/mailpile/Mailpile/issues/1951
Current best solution
Gmail with Simple Notes Plugin. But this is far from perfect. Snoozing an email is not easily done via keyboard.