69. How to Safe Hours Per Month by Handling Your Mail Efficiently

Are you drowning in a sea of emails and drowning in paper clutter on your desk? If that sounds like your daily struggle, you're not alone. Join me, Dr. Inga Hofmann, in this latest episode of the Academic Revolution podcast, where I share game-changing strategies to rescue you from the chaos. I'll guide you through effective techniques to slash the hours you spend dealing with physical mail.

Discover the power of a routine that tames your overflowing mailbox, learn the art of disposing of unnecessary items swiftly, and master the one-touch rule to banish clutter and distractions. Plus, I'll reveal a secret: keep that mail out of your office unless it demands serious attention with a computer. Implementing these tactics will not only declutter your space but also skyrocket your productivity. Don't miss out – tune in now and reclaim your precious time! 

00:01 Introduction to Mail Management

03:33 The Problem with Overflowing Mailboxes

05:39 The Impact of Clutter on Productivity

07:53 Strategies to Overcome Mail Overload

09:41 Practical Tips for Efficient Mail Handling

16:06 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

0:01

Have you ever experienced an overflowing mailbox or worse piles of paper? are, piling up everywhere on your desk. And you have a really hard time finding anything. So, if that is you stay to you and for this very new episode, because this is going to be the help you to save hours per month, if not week. Well, welcome back to another episode of the academic revolution podcast. I'm your host Ingo Hoffman. And I'm so delighted that you're here and I thought we should be following up, maybe continuing on the theme of. Mail and email management and actually saving time because I see so many people struggling with that. So, if you haven't listened to the last couple episodes, Where I go over a specific strategies, how you can save hours of time. Managing your email inbox, then you should go back and listen to that. When you have a moment today are being able to discuss physical mail. Yes, though. It was good old fashioned snail mail letters and journals. You get into your mailbox at work that are overflowing on your desk. So if that is you I think we're going to have a blast. You're going to have fun and you can have walk away with some practice. Practical tips. To really help you manage all that paperwork and all that clutter. Now chances are if you are I like a lot of busy academic physicians, especially if you perhaps your office into your mailbox, your physical mailbox, naughty email. The stuff where the paper may go is. Is perhaps in a different area than your clinical area then you won't be there every day to check that mail and that's actually okay. But I see a lot of people be they struggling with an overflowing. Mailbox where the mail just. Faults out all over the place or the mailman cannot even fit it all in that little slot anymore. Because it's just getting so cluttered and honestly off course, we getting a lot of useless junk mail that can really go right into recycle. And we hope we would never get it, but unfortunately we do. So I want to tell you and share with you some tips that you can implement immediately to help you get out of this. Clatter and really save a lot of time by managing your paper mail effectively. And these are just some simple strategies, but before I go, they are I want to just. Explain why this is actually a problem. You say, well, I have bigger fish to fry than organizing my mail, but here are a few problems that I have found that when I had. Too many male. Laying all over the place or. I had some colleagues that never looked at their mailbox. And then I was always a big production or disaster when they had, or they were a people maybe that is you. That. Take everything that is in their mailbox out, but then it ends up on their desk and it's just piling up there and leads to a lot of clutter. And collateral in our physical space often leads to clutter in our brain. So if this is you there is no condemnation. You're here to learn some different tricks and how to improve that and help you from a practical perspective. I just have these little tools and tips that can save you time so you can focus your time on more productive things that are important in your life. Such as your scholarly activity or your personal health or your family. Whatever it might be, but you certainly don't want to be stuck doing tasks that are often very low to no value. So what are the problems with an overflowing mailbox or if he'd just don't handle your mail efficiently. Well, and I'm up on it really doesn't feel good to right who enjoys looking at a mailbox where there is like stacks of paper. That are just getting out of control. Nobody enjoys looking at that and worse. Nobody really enjoys looking at a desk like that. In fact, I personally find it really hard to function. In an office space, whether it's just mail and letters and journals and all sorts of random paperwork all over the place, it just is incredible distracting. It makes you feel out of control. And honestly, sometimes it makes people feel really bad because they say, well, I should be more organized. I feel. Really guilty about all this clutter in my office. Number one, when you have a lot of clutter, you tend to lose focus. Because the clatter physically in your space is very distracting mentally. When you need to focus on things such as writing or just having. Intense focus on. Thanks. Maybe even clinic notes or patient related things. If you have stuff all over the place. It can be really hard to maintain mental focus. And honestly, I have seen some people that had so much clutter on their desk. They actually hardly had a space to work. And then that becomes a problem because suddenly their office became a giant mailbox and they had to move. To another location to get any meaningful work done. So that is obviously not desired and we can fix that. And then constantly looking for stuff is another big problem. Especially, if you're kind of person who empty, so they a mailbox and brings it to their office, and then you put it on your desk somewhere because you're busy and you will deal with that later. And you do that over and over again. Guess what? Staff pilot's up and often it tends to get into mingled with things that you perhaps looked at and then decided, oh, I will do that later. With important people work. That actually has deadlines on there that you need to handle, and then you can not find the important paperwork. And that is a real issue. If you have to keep on looking in your office for stuff, swift. And sorting through pads and stacks of paper, most of them, which are probably just trash. Then that is really an issue with your productivity and you lose hours of time and that happens in your office. And probably that happens in our homes too. Right? If you have kids. You know what I'm talking about because kids as they're loading to be organized and often are not that organized. At least my kids aren't then we spent hours. Looking for stuff, which is such a waste of time. So these are the problems, basically a feel out of control. It's very distracting. You lose focus and you certainly lose a lot of time. How can you overcome this? These are really some simple tips that I want to share. That you can beat it. Get started on right away to get control of this issue. So number one half E. Scheduled time or assemble regular time when you actually check your physical mailbox. To pick up your mail. That might be, we only need it maybe a once a week. I would certainly not do it more often than that, unless you're really expecting something important to show up and there. Well, maybe even less frequently. There have been times when I only did this once a month and that was fine. It depends on how much Mayo you get and how big your mail slot is. Probably not that big of your like most academic institutions. That kind of pretty slim. So yeah, just pick a time how often you're going to show up there and depending on where your mailbox is, you might tie this to other activities. So if you have office space separate from your clinical space, and it is a bit of a distance to walk different buildings where you might have two mailboxes, depending on what your clinical and research role is while then pick a time where you're already in that physical location. Maybe once a week. Associated with the clinic time or whatever it might be to just go and check that mailbox. So that's number one, make it somehow a regular routine. And what specific day and how often read it depends on number one. You set up. How much mail you get and how big. Your mailbox is and how much he just want to handle this, but I would say go regularly. So it doesn't get to the state where it's overflowing. So let's pick, let's say once a week. So once a week, you show up there, you look at your mailbox. And then you really want to follow the principle of handling your mail only once. Meaning you touch that paper once and make a decision and deal with it and handle it. And that is really important. I made a habit many, many years ago. That I never bring my mail into my office. That is just a general rule. I do not just grab that pile of stuff and take it to my office because I know. That if I do it just sits there and doesn't go anywhere because I have other things to do. They have email distractions. There's important things I want to do. So. I just don't even bother bringing it to your office, handle your mail right there at the mailbox. And actually this can be done in a Madoff, just a couple of minutes or few minutes. So BD doesn't take that much time. Also, if you're standing up by the mailbox to do this thing. Chances how you will do it faster than leisurely sitting in your office and getting distracted by other activities. So Stanford. And sort your mail now, how do you sort it? I literally go through, I take the stack out and then I say, okay quickly swift through, you can usually tell by the envelope. What it is and whether it's something that you need to even open. So the vast majority, I would say of our academic mail goes straight to the recycle bin without me even putting a second thought in it. Or opening that mayor. So these might be those throwaway magazines that IBD don't value or care about that we frequently get. These might be clear pharmaceutical advertisement. I don't need their trash. I'm upset. They're sending it all the time. But I have not figured out a way to just so convinced that and not get that mail and the first place. All those things go immediately to the trash. Then there are other categories I make for myself. One is stuff that I do need to open meaning. Quick and action item and immediate action PI. And something that we'll need more thought for later. So recycle this. Paya number one. Quake actionable step is number two. Number three is something that needs more work later. So we talked about number bono, buddy. They just toss everything immediately into the recycle bin. And don't even bother looking at it more closely unless you really want to and have time to do that. I don't. So I just throw it out. So then there is the pile that are quick action items. Meaning, these are the things where I actually want to double check. I opened the envelope. I quickly see what's in there. And these are often FYI. Yes letters from insurance approval. Most of the time, not even for my patients. So I put them in the. Shredded bin that is for confidential healthcare information that has a lock on it. That's where that goes, or it might be I quick. Prior authorization signature that somebody needs for me so that I would literally sign this right there and put it in whatever the admin box. And make sure it gets taken care of immediately. I'm standing there. So these are the quick actions. So usually something that takes just not more than a minute or so that I can take care of. Right. While I'm standing there and that decreases again, a lot of stuff. By that time when I did those tool categories, chances are, I don't have much mail left at all. If any, it's probably just a couple items. So then I would take those couple items, take a look at them and say, is this something that needs more attention? So what could be in this third category? Number one, it could be I'm Pete semen. That could have been a nice letter from my patient. Thanking me or a postcard or holiday card. I cherish those. So I keep them. But what about. Other things where somebody needs me to fill out maybe a form, either for a patient or related to credentialing. That I might not get per email. I will take that to my office. And then I say, okay, I need some additional information that I can not fill out right here. I'm standing by the mailbox. I actually need computer access to take care of this item. If it's relatively quick, I will still do it immediately to be done with it because otherwise it's easy to forget and hang over your head. But sometimes there's items that really truly need more time. And when I say meet more time, More than five minutes. So if they are truly something, a lengthy response that is required. Or more research that needs to be done. Which will be rare in your physical mailbox then I would say, okay. I do not have enough scheduled time block right now because my handling the mail, there's only a few minutes down block. So then I might say, I'm going to do that later today. Put it quickly on my calendar, or if it's speedy, a bigger production. You know, put it on your calendar as an actual action item and a to do item. That he will take care of. At whatever reasonable timeframe for that action item related to that piece of mail. Now I would say that is probably incredible per year. That we get that type of mail anymore in our mailbox. That needs more dedicated handling or a longer time period. I would say that's far and few in between. That you will get those letters, but the goal is always do whatever you can immediately right away. So you don't have to worry about it and clear out all that trash and clutter and recycling stuff. So it is not cluttering your desk, your mailbox, or your brain, because it's a major distraction. And with that, you should be done with that in a few minutes and you keep your office clean. The important part is don't take. Anything. Back into your office, unless it really needs a thoughtful response that requires your computer. I hope this helped you. So remember handled your mailbox on a regular basis. To keep the clutter out of your office. Do the handling of your physical mail immediately their assistant in the mail room or by that shelf? And immediately toss what you don't need and only bring those items in your office that truly need significant attention or computer access. And again, these should be very few items. With that you can stay on top of your mail with ease, avoid all the secondary problems that you will get. If you would carry all that stuff into your office. Because I know, I know, I know I have been there and I've seen it. A lot of times that once it enters our office becomes a stack of paper somewhere that we then have to swift through and it becomes overwhelming. So take these tips, implement them immediately. Also let me know how it's working. You can always leave a comment on the podcast itself. Leave a review, leave a comment. Leave a tip oh, thank you. How it helped you because that will help other people. And of course, don't forget to share. And subscribe to the podcast, have a wonderful week. And I talk to soon.