TRAF

A lesson I learned

I attended a management training course offered by my company many years ago. One of the techniques that stuck with me was how to manage that growing pile in your inbox ( paper or email)

The system is called TRAF and it represents one of four things you should do with an inbox item - all geared towards , whenever possible, avoiding handling that item more than once:

T  trash it. Now!

R  read it. Now!

A  action it. Make or schedule the call, route it or forward it, delegate it. Now!

F  file it. Now!

It has held me in good stead and applies to a lot more than inboxes. Bottom line, make an effort not to  put things off if you don't have to. Close things out quickly and you save a lot of time.