Use LIFO, Not FIFO, to Manage Your Inbox

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

What are LIFO and FIFO?

LIFO and FIFO are terms that come from the financial world—respectively, they stand for “last in, first out” and “first in, first out.” They’re often used by accountants to describe inventory but can refer to anything where items are coming “in,” like, well, emails. In this context, it refers to the practice of responding to either your oldest or your newest unreads first, then working your way in the opposite direction from there.

Why is LIFO better than FIFO for email management?

LIFO, or the practice of answering the most recent emails before older ones, is much more common than FIFO for good reason: Your more recent emails are timely and, depending on how old the past ones are, the ship on being late to 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 follow-up and, even though that might be embarrassing for you, it’ll bump the older content into LIFO territory anyway. LIFO essentially relies on the idea that the older problems will sort themselves out or be brought back to your attention if they have to be. It’s like giving yourself grace on what you missed and focusing instead on what you can take care of right now.

Of course, there might be times when you don’t get a follow-up or really do miss something important from the past. The Muse recommends an easy solution here that I can get behind: One day a week, use the time that you’ve blocked out for your email management to work in FIFO mode, going through your emails reverse-chronologically to make sure you didn’t miss anything big. Using FIFO too consistently can have negative consequences, though. If you’re always working on tasks from the past, you risk missing newer, more urgent ones that need immediate attention. Save it for one day per week and use your time to handle pressing matters on a day-to-day basis.

An important element of either strategy is timing. Make sure to block out time for email management every day, ideally using a scheduling tactic like timeboxing. Dedicating specific, uninterrupted time to your inbox management makes it more doable and ensures you’ll actually handle the emails in the first place, whereas answering them sporadically through the day opens you up to the possibility of being distracted or procrastinating more frequently.