Ideate

How to zero your inbox and live happily ever after.

by Shane on 28/10/08 at 4:31 pm
8 comments

I have finally found a solution to my Inbox problem!

At any given time I would have at least 200 emails sitting in my Inbox and no matter what technique I tried, a couple of days after semi emptying my Inbox I would be right back where I started. Andrew has been on at me about the state of my Inbox and I decided to do something about it. I checked out Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero talk and finally understood it in a way that would work for me. I’m not a techie person, so if it’s not ultra simple and doable there is little chance that I’ll be able to maintain it.

Not any more! This is super easy and requires half a brain to manage. Thankfully I qualify.

Before this new ‘technique’ will work for you there are a few foundational elements that must be adhered to:

Your Inbox must not be seen as a Task-List, but rather an Airport Runway.
If emails sit in your Inbox until they are dealt with you are in trouble! The problem is that when you are trying to deal with one email you have a whole bunch of others arriving and very soon you will be overwhelmed. When an aeroplane lands, it is required to taxi off the runway immediately. Can you imagine what would happen if an aeroplane parked off on the runway!

Turn-off your email auto-check.
You don’t need to check your email every few minutes (unless your job requires it, which almost none do). Incoming emails distract you from dealing with the emails that have already “landed”. Rather own the Send & Receive process by clicking on it at a time that suits you, and when you know you have time to “clear the runway”.

Think ‘Batch Processing’.
Instead of responding to individual emails as they arrive, deal with the same type of emails all at once. It’s easier to reply to 10 emails as a single batch because you are in the same frame of thinking. If you try and deal with 10 different emails that require production work, appointments to be confirmed and newsletters to be unsubscribed your mind is going to be all over the place and your productivity will weaken. Read how batch processing can make you more productive here.

And now for the super technique…

Create 4 actionable folders.

Most people use folders to store emails that are deemed important. Turn your folders into actionable areas and let them become THE focal point to the way you deal with your email. I suggest these four folders:

1. ACTION – this is where you divert all your emails that require work to be done. eg. an email asking you to please prepare next years marketing budget. Depending on your email client you might be able to “tag”, “label” or “prioritise” the mails in this folder so that you know what to tackle first. But, don’t be tempted to create sub-folders – if you can’t see all your action e-mails at once, some will get lost.

2. READ – this is where you divert all emails that you would like to read when you have time, but they don’t require a response or action eg. A newsletter from your favourite online store.

3. REPLY – this is for everything that requires a response from you eg. you need to get back to someone to confirm a meeting time.

4. UNSUBSCRIBE – This is for email newsletters/mailers that you no longer want to receive. They might require a bit of time and effort to unsubscribe, but at least you have them all in one place and you can deal with them when you’re feeling bored.

So, when you click Send and Receive, your emails will arrive on the Runway (Your Inbox). Clear the ones that can be dealt with in a few seconds (like hitting delete) and allocate the rest to one of the 4 folders. Once they are in these folders, click on each folder and batch process them. The Read and Unsubscribe folders won’t require urgent attention, so you can look at those when the time is right.

In order for this technique to work well, you have to make sure that NOTHING is left in the Inbox before you start dealing with any work or responses – remember, planes are not allowed parking on the runway. If you leave a couple of “urgent” e-mails in your inbox the system will fall apart – you will stop trusting that the “action” and “reply” folders are the important ones, and things will get lost in there. If your inbox is empty you are forced to look in your action and reply folders for what to do next.

At this stage you are probably wondering why I only mentioned 4 folders? You might have 39 folders that you use to file your emails. My advice – have one reference folder that you use to store stuff that will need to access later, but keep this folder minimised so it doesn’t distract you from your 4 folders. If you need to be able to find old emails, rather use something that allows you to search your emails. Xobni works really well for Outlook, and if you are using Gmail, searching is not a problem.

There is no greater feeling at the end of the day than leaving with a clear inbox, with everything neatly in it’s place. If you’re been drowning in email and not known what to do about it, give this technique a try and let me know how it works for you.

May the 4 be with you.

Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.

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