From 100 Emails to 9: What Happened When We Got Serious

A few weeks ago I wrote about how most of us use email wrong, treating our inbox like a to-do list instead of an actual system. 

That newsletter was the start of something bigger. 

What We Changed 

In mid-November, I introduced a new policy to the team: the Shared Systems Discipline Policy. The core idea is simple, every HelpScout email gets transferred to HawkSoft and closed by end of day. Every task gets completed, rescheduled, or reassigned. No exceptions. 

We run a 4-day, 32-hour workweek at Foresight. That only works if our shared systems actually work. When people leave emails sitting in folders or tasks overdue, nobody else can step in to help.  The 4-day workweek stops being sustainable. 

So we made it non-negotiable. We're in a grace period right now, tracking compliance but not enforcing consequences until January.  Everyone is learning together. 

Is it working? 

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, our operations manager, Erica sent a message to the team around mid-day.  

"Please ensure that all work assigned to you in Help Scout has been moved to HawkSoft. There should not be anything remaining in your Help Scout email folder. In HawkSoft, please make sure there are no past-due tasks. Any tasks that would fall on tomorrow or Friday should be moved to Monday since the office will be closed both days." 

When I checked our shared inbox later that afternoon? 

Nine emails. 

Not ninety. Nine. 

We used to hover around 60-100 emails sitting in assigned folders at any given time. Stuff waiting to be touched. Stuff aging. Stuff nobody could see clearly. People were using their inbox as a To Do list.  

Wednesday before a four-day holiday weekend? Nine pending emails for the entire agency. Zero overdue tasks in HawkSoft. 

That's what happens when leadership reinforces the standard and the team follows through. 

Why This Matters 

When your systems are clean, you can actually see what's happening. 

You can see who's falling behind. You can see what emails haven't been touched. You can see what tasks are overdue. And when you can see it, you can fix it, whether that means jumping in to help a teammate or having a coaching conversation. 

When your systems are messy, everything hides. Problems compound. People drown quietly while everyone assumes things are fine. 

Discipline with your emails and tasks doesn't mean more work. It means less overwhelm. It means being productive instead of busy. It means doing more with less every single day. 

We're three weeks into this experiment. So far, the team is proving it works. 

If you manage a team, or even just manage yourself, ask this question: Can you see what's actually happening in your agency right now? Or is it buried in people’s inboxes and personal lists nobody else can access? 

Clean and shared systems create visibility. Visibility creates accountability. Accountability protects everything you've built. 

We're protecting our 4-day workweek one closed email at a time.