Do you know the "touch it once" principle? (aka if something takes less than 15 minutes, do it immediately)
Updated by Nick Curran [SSW] 11 months ago. See history
This tiny cost once multiplied multiple times per task, and considering how many small (<15 minutes) style tasks we all get in a given day, can end up taking up a sizable portion of your effective time while at work.
To combat this, if you ever receive a task that would take 15 minutes or less to complete, do it immediately, reply done if necessary, and then delete it.
Another way to implement this principle to save yourself the cognitive load of re-reading emails is to forward emails to followupthen.com. For example, if you know you won’t be able to work on a particular task for at least 2 weeks because of a dependency, forward the email to 2weeks@followupthen.com, and it will reappear in your inbox at the time you can actually do something about it.
Note: Some clients have strict change management procedures that require that a PBI is created for all work, and even work as minor as correcting a spelling mistake requires Product Owner approval. In that case, you must turn your email into a PBI.
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