The Succeed step of the IMS Daily Workflow is the ultimate goal of the process. You’ve identified your priorities for the day and have managed your Inbox. Now, throughout the day, succeed by focusing on your work rather than your email:
Turn off new mail notifications via Do Not Disturb so that you can work on your tasks without interruption.
Open the IMS Dashboard and select a project to work on via the Topic drop down. Work on your most important tasks for the project.
To stay on top of email throughout the day, sort your Inbox by priority (ClearContext > Inbox Views) and review only your highest priority messages (in red and blue) as needed.
Use the RelatedView to see emails, appointments and other related tasks to get the full context for the item you are working on.
One note on the Prioritized step above – if you look at a message during this phase, make sure that you act on any message you open just as you would in the manage phase. You should strive to only touch an Inbox message once.
By completing the Identify and Manage steps previously, you are free to focus on the work that is most important to you while staying in control of your email.
As mentioned in my initial IMS post, this process is distilled down from a wealth of best practices developed over the course of several years. If you have not done so already, subscribe to this blog to receive future tips on best use of IMS to maximize your personal productivity.