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Why Inbox Zero?

As touched on in a previous post, I use my inbox as a larger part of a task management system; most of the emails I receive are directly related to things that need to be done.

Because I’m running Google Apps, every message is archived; deleting an email doesn’t mean that it’s not accessible if I ever need to look back for reference. Of course, at times, a certain email may contain pertinent information to an ongoing project. I’m not recommending deleting emails like that – have a folder system set up where you can move the message, then flag or color-code according to the task it relates to. But don’t leave it in the inbox.

Upon completion, deleting the email equates to checking off on a to-do list. Maintaining a clean inbox doesn’t waste time, it ensures prioritization and proper use of the time you have. And if you take care of messages as they come in, worries of a pileup are nonexistent. When you’re faced with a massive heap of emails, not only does a sense of desperation set in, but it’s difficult to know where to start – especially if there’s notifications from Twitter and Facebook all over the place.

I’ve had nothing but positive results from inbox zero.  What works for you?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 20th, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://paulstamatiou.com Paul Stamatiou

    I have similar thoughts on Inbox Zero – most emails in my inbox relate to deliverables or tasks that need to be done. Sometimes I delegate things to a “later” folder that don’t make sense to do right now, or that I am waiting on some other person to do something before I can proceed. Then I use Things app on Mac to add miscellaneous yet low priority to-do items that originate from emails (then I archive the emails).

  • http://www.themattsmith.net Matt Smith

    interesting. I’m a pretty heavy Things user too – haven’t thought about a low-priority/email category, though. will have to try that out!

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    One thing I’ve done that’s helped a lot is to send anything that is a “to read” email into Evernote (which is a tool I freaking love). Evernote gives you an email so anything you email to it will go into your notes, and it allows you to specify which folder the note goes into. I find probably 30% of my emails are people sending me something to read, but which isn’t actionable.

    One thing I’m trying to do now is figure out a way to send an email to Gmail and have it go directly into the Gmail Tasks functionality. So if I get an email at work, I want to send it right into a Task. Know how to do that?

    And both of you sound like you use Things, I’m assuming you both highly recommend it for to-do lists?

  • http://www.bohemianpixel.com/ Andy Thornton

    I use the same approach, I added some ideas from Scrum to organise emails into tasks in gmail and use an “Attic”, a label for ideas / tasks that have gone off the boil, put them in the attic and forget about them and pull them back in if they come up again.

    Great for prospective projects that take time getting off the ground.