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This post is one of the best in my Equilibrium Zero Series. Read another great post, Desktop Zero and Home base Zero, to clear the physical clutter off your desk and out of your home.
In this week's episode of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast I discuss Inbox Zero. I have been using this productivity strategy for years. Not only is it effective, it just may be one the smartest methods I have found to cut the clutter AND get more done.
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Photo Credit: Jeff Sanders
Why Zero?
The concept of Inbox Zero is simple: process every email by the end of every day. Why Zero? Because it guarantees 100% effectiveness.
Think of it this way, if you wanted a surefire system that you could trust and believe in, you would likely expect the system to be leak proof. In other words, you would want your trusted system to address every issue, without forgetting even a single detail.
That is what Inbox Zero promises. No leaks. Nothing forgotten. Nothing overlooked.
Does it deliver? Yes. Zero means zero.
Big Numbers are Scary
I frequently run into people who have hundreds, even thousands of emails (if you can believe it) in their inbox! Why does this happen? Three reasons:
* There is no system.
* There is no strong reason to create a system.
* There is no follow-though.
When your inbox peaks at over 100 emails, it's really hard to care anymore. The number is too big. It's intimidating to try to reply to hundreds of messages.
If you want to destroy your severely inflated inbox, you need an email overhaul. First, schedule a long weekend to process the backlog. Second, follow the steps below and maintain the system on a daily basis.
Inbox Zero
This is the Definitive Guide to Inbox Zero. Feel free to customize the rules and allow them to act as guidelines to progress you further on your journey to becoming a productivity zen master.
* Delete every email you possibly can. This includes spam, junk mail, advertisements, messages that don't warrant a response, and any other irrelevant message.
* Unsubscribe to every newsletter you don't actually read. Legitimate newsletters have “unsubscribe” options. Most spam emails do not. Make it your daily practice to unsubscribe every time. This will seriously reduce the number of emails you receive. The alternative to unsubscribing is to make a plan to read the newsletters, even if that happens somewhere outside of your email inbox.
* Archive important messages that don't require a response, but that you need to keep. This could include financial statements, receipts, contracts, information about a project that isn't important for a few weeks, or other messages you just can't bear to part with. Over the years I have had as many as 100 folders that organized and stored messages I assumed I would need. It has become abundantly clear that I don't need 99.9% of the emails I keep. |
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