Use LIFO Rather Than FIFO to Manage Your Mailbox

How do you decide which emails to respond to first? Your choices can determine how your workday goes, but options can sometimes lead to indecision (which only slows you down further). In general, you should choose between a LIFO or FIFO approach to your mailbox – and in my opinion, LIFO is the choice.

What are LIFO and FIFO?

LIFO and FIFO are terms that come from the financial world, meaning “last in, first out” and “first in, first out,” respectively. They are often used by accountants to describe inventory, but can refer to anything where items “arrive”, such as emails. In this context, it refers to the practice of responding to either the oldest or newest unread messages first, and then moving forward in the opposite direction.

Why is LIFO better than FIFO for email management?

LIFO, or the practice of responding to your most recent emails before earlier ones, is much more common than FIFO, and for good reason: your most recent emails are timely, and, depending on how long ago the previous ones were, the ship that was late for them has already sailed. You should focus on the tasks at hand to stay on top of your work.

If something from the past is truly urgent or important, you’ll get a sequel, and while this may confuse you, it will still push the old content into LIFO territory. LIFO essentially relies on the idea that old problems will resolve themselves or come back to your attention if necessary. It’s like allowing yourself what you’ve missed and instead focusing on what you can take care of right now.

Of course, there may be times when you don’t get follow-up or actually miss something important from the past. Muse recommends a simple solution here , which I can avoid: One day a week, use the time you’ve blocked to keep your email management running in FIFO mode, reviewing your emails in reverse chronological order to make sure you haven’t done it. I won’t miss anything important. However, using FIFOs too consistently can have negative consequences. If you are constantly working on tasks from the past, you risk missing new, more urgent ones that require immediate attention. Leave it to one day a week and use your time to deal with urgent daily tasks.

An important element of any strategy is timing. Be sure to set aside time each day to manage your email, ideally using a scheduling tactic like time boxing . Allocating specific, uninterrupted time to managing your inbox makes it more manageable and ensures that you actually deal with emails first, whereas responding to them sporadically throughout the day can leave you more likely to get distracted or procrastinate.