Inbox 0 is awesome!

[Spalding]

I just love a nice clean Outlook Inbox! I may not have the best system in the world (I sometimes leave one or two pressing things in the Inbox until they are done), but I am feeling more and more comfortable with my email flow. As long as I am not totally overwhelmed, usually emails go pretty quickly from Inbox to either 2011 Emails (a reference archive), Time Critical HOLD (due dates in the next few weeks or so), or HOLD. Every once in a while one goes into a Someday/Maybe Outlook folder.

So ideally I am working out of Time Critical HOLD, or on the rare project or action without an email. Of course a problem is I never really get to HOLD, so one flaw is that I am somewhat letting the urgent tyrannize the important. But I do usually at least review HOLD in the weekly review.

So this is my main system, supplemented with just a few text files - a daily log, Next Actions (admittedly seldom consulted, and Projects (same).

So how is your email organization/workflow going?

 

[SoonerRyan]

mixed results

I can get my email to zero, but my physical inbox tends to be the place for things that I haven't done yet. Even if I have processed it, sometimes there isn't a good place to put it until I'm ready to work on it. I'm still in the early stages of implementation right now.

 

[Myriam]

inbox almost empty is already great...

hi,

over the last year I went from inbox around 800 to around 100, and stayed there for a while, then I went to around 20 and stayed there for a while, an since a couple of months I keep steady at inbox with 5 or 6 mails. It's a great feeling. Those 5 e-mails have been there for a long time, it's like old friends, there are no actions attached to them, in fact I should simply file them somewhere and get to inbox really zero. But I kind of like it this way.

Incoming mails are immediately either:
- deleted
- answered immediately (the 2 minute-rule)
- moved to a folder "to answer" (for mails I only need to do some typing for, no other action)
- moved to a folder "action" (the massage is then flagged and the action is immediately noted in my na-list)
- moved to a folder "read / review" (news letters for example)
- moved to reference folders

So I never really work "out of the folders". I work from my na-list, and there I might have noted "look at agenda to find free dates for meeting with x (mail 27/4)". This means a mail from april 27th is in my action folder. When I have looked up possible dates, I go to that mail and answer it.

If I have very little time, I just process on the run and move the mails to the folders, but without the note in the action list. When I get to it (maybe the day after) I then flag the mail message and write the NA on my list.

greetings,
Myriam

 

[pxt]

I find that I have started to punctuate my day with The Zero Moment.

After completing any task, I then have a small checklist of collectors that I bring back to zero. These include my email inbox, real mail inbox, my computer desktop and my real desktop.

Then I pause to take a breath and just enjoy it.

 

[Spalding]

I like it!

I find that I have started to punctuate my day with The Zero Moment.

After completing any task, I then have a small checklist of collectors that I bring back to zero. These include my email inbox, real mail inbox, my computer desktop and my real desktop.

Then I pause to take a breath and just enjoy it.

This sounds good to me. I don;t do it with the others as often as I do with my email, but I need to do that! Of course at home I have been working on my physical mail pile for YEARS! If I ever kill that sucker it will be a wonderful moment!

Out of curiosity, I googled that term and came up pretty blank.

 

[Geekgirl]

I find that I have started to punctuate my day with The Zero Moment.

After completing any task, I then have a small checklist of collectors that I bring back to zero. These include my email inbox, real mail inbox, my computer desktop and my real desktop.

Then I pause to take a breath and just enjoy it.

Sounds interesting, care to share your checklist?

 

[jerry0503214]

I can get my email to zero, but my physical inbox tends to be the place for things that I haven't done yet. Even if I have processed it, sometimes there isn't a good place to put it until I'm ready to work on it. I'm still in the early stages of implementation right now.

 

[mthar1]

I can get my email to zero, but my physical inbox tends to be the place for things that I haven't done yet. Even if I have processed it, sometimes there isn't a good place to put it until I'm ready to work on it. I'm still in the early stages of implementation right now.

Do you have one or more project and/or action support folders? Another letter tray could be labeled "In progress" and be where you keep all that doesn't belong in the inbox any more. It doesn't have to be any more sofisticated than that.