After 2+ day disruptions, triage before processing — many…
After disruptions longer than two days, triage accumulated items (actionable + time-sensitive, resolved itself, archive) before chronological processing to eliminate waste from self-resolved issues.
When This Fires
- Returning from vacation, sick leave, or any absence longer than 2 days
- After a crisis or project crunch where normal processing was suspended
- Coming back to a project after a multi-day gap
- Any time accumulated items exceed what can be processed in 30 minutes
Common Failure Mode
Processing chronologically because it "feels thorough." You spend 90 minutes carefully reading and responding to items from Monday and Tuesday, many of which were resolved by Thursday. The triage approach would have identified those as "resolved itself" in 30 seconds each, freeing 60 minutes for items that actually need attention.
The Protocol
After a 2+ day disruption: (1) Do not open items chronologically. (2) Scan all accumulated items quickly (subject lines, titles, timestamps). (3) For each: is it still actionable and time-sensitive? → Flag for processing. Did it resolve itself? → Archive/delete. Informational only? → Archive. (4) Process only the flagged items in priority order. (5) The reduction from triage (typically 40-60% of items eliminated) converts a daunting backlog into a manageable processing session.