Thursday, January 07, 2010
10 Tips: My Personal Journey Toward Maintaining Inbox Zero
WebWorkerDaily: "I get a lot of email and am often frustrated when I miss an important message, just because it slipped down and out of sight into page two of my inbox. I also have a ritual of emptying my inbox and getting to inbox zero (or at least close to zero) twice a year, before my trips to visit my family for the holidays and again in July. There is something so satisfying about starting a trip with a clean inbox, and I’ve been able to get to inbox zero twice a year for many years now. However, this time I wanted to keep it at inbox zero."
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4 comments:
It was really helpful to read this article. Email has always been something that I've struggled to keep contained/organized. I've started organizing based on class or production, but the concept the author brought up about having a "Must Respond" and "Must Read" folder is really intelligent. When you're skimming through email, you don't always have time to write thoughtful responses. It would be very convenient to have a place where you could put all of those emails, and keep your inbox clear. I agree with the author about getting inbox to zero twice a year. Although, it is nice to keep in the single digits. I definitely think that the folder organizing will help maintain a low inbox.
I question the importance of "inbox zero" when those espousing it will also advocate having folders to hold messages that you need to respond to, or even read. All that they're doing is splitting up the inbox but not calling the other pieces the inbox so they can claim their inbox is empty. How is that really different from leaving them in the inbox but realizing that they're there for a later time other than a label? If it's all the same thing in reality, why the big fuss over having an empty inbox?
I've always been a little confused by people who have a hard time maintaining a low number of messages in their inbox. With the wide variety and availability of smart phones and other devices that allow for on the go email access. Beyond that, email clients like Outlook have a preview window built into their basic interface that allows for easy scanning. I really think that an overstuffed inbox just strikes me as an excuse for not reading an email.
This is a great article to help simplify our lives by getting to a zero inbox. I have been trying to get to zero but can’t seem to get there. I think that some of the things that were suggested will help me to get to this but I think that for me to get to a zero inbox I just need to start being consistent and just do it and not let myself slip. My goal would be to get to this sometime in the near future and then keep it going. Then the key is not let myself get a backlog. This was a very useful article and I would like to see more like this one, anything to simplify our lives is great.
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