Inbox Zero
Posted by Eric Stein - December 29, 2010 CE @ 20:36:44 UTC
When you've got a pile of email coming in all the time, some of which can be immediately acted on and some can't, you may find yourself with a feeling of paralysis when you look at your inbox with 17 unread messages from a week ago and 4,724 from the last few years (read). If you feel it, keep reading.
Strangely, today became the biggest day in getting lots of email demanding my attention and action I've had in months, all while I was learning about Inbox Zero. The idea is to have nothing in your inbox. This is surprisingly easy to achieve.
I got a few additional tips from Alan.
It only took about an hour to sort through my mail and get it filed in such a way that I can now log into my email and see only things that I haven't seen and I need to act on. It's calming and I'm more productive.
Reclaim Your Inbox
There's a recent trend among Dyn employees, particularly in support, to try something called "Inbox Zero." Today I'd heard it enough times that I had to find out what it was. I asked Alan and he sent me this hour long video that I started watching in the background while scraping through my mail in the morning hours.Strangely, today became the biggest day in getting lots of email demanding my attention and action I've had in months, all while I was learning about Inbox Zero. The idea is to have nothing in your inbox. This is surprisingly easy to achieve.
- act quickly if the request is simple
- use external task tracking rather than your inbox as a TODO list, there are thousands of these
- delete things you'll never need again
- delegate quickly if that's what you need to do
- file mail to folders quickly
I got a few additional tips from Alan.
- set up filters for things you never have to respond to
- make a folder for the folders those filters filter to
- collapse that folder so you don't see that you have mail in those folders
It only took about an hour to sort through my mail and get it filed in such a way that I can now log into my email and see only things that I haven't seen and I need to act on. It's calming and I'm more productive.
Last Edited February 7, 2011 CE @ 06:40:07 UTC
Another tip: if you that when you are done with an email and want want to send it to an archive folder but it takes you longer than 3 seconds, drop it into the "Everything Else" folder.
9 times out of 10 I to a text search anyway to find an email I'm looking for, so spending 20 seconds deciding if this email of my grandmother's dancing cat should go into my "Dancing" folder, "Cute Kitties" folder or into "From Grandma" is silly.
Oh, which also brings up another suggestion: dont' get too specific with those folder names. General is good :D