Unlike the other guidelines we’ve discussed in this chapter, the ‘back from holiday’ crunch isn’t a rule for processing your email on a regular basis, but rather a simple method to get you through the mountains of mail that wait for you when you return to the office after being away for a few days or even weeks. The idea is to get you up to speed on everything you missed as quickly as possible without going crazy or losing an entire day to email. (You can also use this method to get through your backed-up inbox the first time you try speedmailing.)

The ‘back from holiday’ crunch uses the same principles you’ve already learned: emails are still sorted into four action folders one at a time. However, in the ‘back from holiday’ crunch, two extra rules apply:

1. Ignore the two-minute rule.
2. Apply the law of getting bored twice.

Simply start at the top of your emails and start sorting. However, even if an email can be done in two minutes, don’t start on it but move it to ‘Do This Week’ instead. Trim down your processing time by being more selective about which tasks you take on. For example, do you really need to catch up on every newsletter you missed while you were away? You’ll save yourself a lot of time if you delete with abandon – you’re unlikely to miss it.

As you sort, you’ll gradually notice that the emails you’re reading feel less and less relevant. We call this getting bored. Rather than getting bored, we want you to be getting back to work. Speed up the speedmailing process and prevent yourself from numbing your mind, when you’ve just returned to office life, by following the ‘law of getting bored twice’. It essentially breaks down into a three-part process:

1. Once you get bored with sorting one by one from the top, switch to scanning for important emails (this only applies to the ‘back from holiday’ crunch!), and sort just those.
2. Once you get bored a second time, select all remaining emails (Ctrl+A) and file or archive them. If needed, you can always find them later using your search tool.
3. Now proceed to ‘Do This Week’ and start tackling your two-minute tasks. You’re back working as usual already!

While it is possible that you will miss an older action item or two working this way, the speed of the crunch procedure more than makes up for these generally understandable slips with a drastic reduction in the time it takes to get you back to actual productivity. You’ll be back impressing your boss and colleagues on the work floor the very morning you return!