Email Triage System
Decide once per email: nothing, quick-flag, or make it a to-do
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
Peter Akkies treats email as a triage problem rather than an app problem. It starts before tactics: reset expectations so colleagues stop assuming a reply within thirty minutes. Then batch-process at set times instead of reacting all day, which is what actually wrecks focus — worse still on Slack and Teams. For each unread email you make one decision. If nothing is needed, archive it and unsubscribe if possible. If it takes two minutes or less, flag it and handle all flagged emails in a batch. If it needs real work, create a to-do (ideally linked back to the email via a Gmail/Todoist integration) and deal with it when you reach that task. The discipline is deciding every email exactly once so nothing slips through the cracks, without flooding your to-do app with trivial one-minute replies.
Origin
Peter Akkies refined this triage approach coaching corporate and knowledge workers, emphasizing that the system around email matters far more than any premium app.
Core principles
- 01The system matters more than the app
- 02Answering email all day destroys focus
- 03Reset other people's expectations about your response speed
- 04Batch at set times instead of reacting all day
- 05Nothing should slip through the cracks
How to run it
- 1
Reset response-time expectations
Teach colleagues you will not reply within ten or thirty minutes. Refuse to answer that fast and people eventually respect it.
Pro tip If your workplace won't respect it, have a frank conversation about your actual job description.
Watch out Cultures that demand instant replies may ultimately mean you need to work elsewhere.
- 2
Batch-process at set times
Check email as needed but reply in dedicated blocks rather than reacting all day. The same applies to Slack and Teams.
Pro tip Set up focus time where you're simply not on the chat apps at all.
Watch out Ten scattered replies a day completely destroys your focus.
- 3
Sort each email into nothing / quick / long
For every unread email decide whether it needs no action, a quick reply of two minutes or less, or real work.
Pro tip If it needs nothing and is recurring clutter, unsubscribe so it never returns.
- 4
Flag the quick ones
For two-minute-or-less emails, flag them (the star in Gmail) and clear all flagged emails in one batch pass, unflagging as you go.
Pro tip Any mail app supports flags — no special tool needed.
- 5
Turn long ones into linked to-dos
For emails needing real work, forward or push them into your to-do app as a task that links back to the email, and handle it when you reach that task.
Pro tip Use a Gmail-to-Todoist style integration to create a linked task in one click.
Watch out Don't forward every trivial one-minute email — you'll bury your to-do app in 60 tiny tasks.
In the wild
Peter describes people at work who set up a filter so that any email where they are merely CC'd is automatically routed into a folder they never open, because those messages are almost never relevant. Only mail directed straight at them lands in the main inbox. Combined with batch triage and aggressive unsubscribing, this keeps the visible inbox to the genuinely relevant items and preserves focus for real work.
→ The inbox surfaces only directed, relevant mail; CC noise disappears.
Common mistakes
Forwarding every email into your to-do app
New converts push all mail into their task manager and end up with 60 one-minute tasks. Only long, real-work emails belong there; batch the quick ones.
Believing a premium app is the fix
Expensive email apps won't save you without a triage system. The system around email matters far more than the tool.
Is it for you?
Best for
Knowledge and corporate workers drowning in inbox and Slack/Teams interruptions.
Not ideal for
People getting hundreds of emails a day who genuinely need a dedicated assistant.
From the transcript
“So each email that comes in, I decide what to do with it. Either I need to do nothing, it's a short task, best process…”
“It's really not about the app, it's more about having the system around it where you have a way of making sure nothing slips through…”
From the episode
7 Hacks To Master Your Productivity & Get More Done - Peter Akkies - #660
Peter Akkies