How I’ve Kept My Inbox Empty For One Year

A year ago (well, I’ll be honest, 11 months ago), I was one of those people that always had about 60 unread items in my gmail inbox. About every 3-weeks I would empty out all my unread items. This was how I lived. I just accepted my crowded inbox.

However, I changed specific habits that not only helped me clear out lingering items in my inbox, but also lingering items everywhere: my home office, appartment, projects and work-related items. I’ve tried most organization systems, Tim Ferriss’ philosophy, David Allens, online software, SaaS, etc. In the end, the following three items worked best for organizing, getting things done and keeping my inbox clear:

I. Three Options:

You have three options when reading email:

(i) 5-Min Rule: If it takes about 5 minutes, just do it. I used to only do things under two minutes, but more and more things are requiring thought. Just do anything under 5 minutes.

(ii) Add it to your calendar: If you’re too tired, and it’s the end of the day, just defer it. Put it in your calendar. The best add-on feature of the year was Gmail’s Gcal integration. In google labs, enable the Gcal, which sits right under the left-navigation tabs, and above your “Contacts/Gtalk” tab. That set up allows you to quickly defer any non-timely task. If the time comes in a week to do it, sometimes you’ll realize how unimportant the task is, or it’s already solved.

(iii) Don’t do anything [not offensive]: Sometimes non-work-related items just take too long. Especially the requests and items from people that want something for nothing. If something sucks your time, and doesn’t provide any value, you don’t have to do it. It’s optional. Don’t forget that. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll help people out for nothing if I know they need help, they’re a regular reader and/or I know the solution; however, I’m not a charity. If I’m exhausted and I get a question that someone can easily google, I’ll ignore it. Don’t feel bad. Just tell people, “Hey, I’m not a charity.”

II. Quick Responses:

When I first entered corporate America, my emails read like a Tolstoy novel. When I browse through my archives, I’m amazed. How and why would anyone read something that long? I’ve since looked at email as if it’s twitter. I keep my replies and responses short and sometimes sweet. In work-related occasions, with instructions or important items, I’ll write a couple paragraphs–but those make up only 5-10% of my emails. The other ones are around three sentences. Believe it or not, when you see email as quick blasts, you can clear out responses and only focus on tasks and people.

III. To-Do List

I tried out an electronic to-do list for three months, but decided to go back to pen and paper. Simultaneously while clearing out the inbox, I’ll usually write out to-do list items that I can scratch off throughout the day. I use email as the source, and my paper to-do list as a measurement. This also frees me from getting sucked into my inbox. It allows me to focus on items that are in a separate environment than the online world, which has definitely proven to be a time-sucker.

That’s it.

Those three elements are quite simple; however, through trial and error they’ve taken me a long time to learn. Hopefully this helps you out.

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