The “Touch Once” Rule

The “Touch Once” Rule

To help you decide quickly, you can use the “touch once” rule. This rule stipulates that you handle an email once.
“Click”, you open the email. Now, right here and there, you must decide the fate of the email. One touch, that’s all you get.

You must choose one of the following four options:

1. Delete (which means you have nothing to do and there’s no need to file this email)
2. Do now (which means you handle the email’s request right away and then delete or file this email)
3. Defer or Do later (which means put a task on your calendar and then delete or file this email)
4. Delegate (which means assigning the action item to someone else and then delete and file this email)

You’ll notice that each of these options require that you either delete or archive the email. This right here is where your inbox gets clean. Anytime you touch an email, you must make those decisions.

This is hard; you must resist the urge to procrastinate, which is easy to do when it comes to emails. In fact, it’s easy to say, “I’ll reopen this email later.” The more disciplined you are in processing emails after one touch, the cleaner your inbox will be.