Reminders / Triggers to Maintain Inbox Zero

[wsbsmith]

I've been looking for something that will serve as a constant reminder to maintain my zero (or near-zero) inbox, so I made this sticker that I've attached to my monitor this morning. Hopefully I won't become blind to it over time.

Do others have visual tools/tricks for keeping "with the program?"

Scott

 

[schmeggahead]

I have a set of physical Inbox cards for every Inbox I use. That deck is tossed into my office inbox the day before my weekly review. I scan through the deck and make a mental note which inboxes have been emptied in that last week, separating them in two piles.

I put a date sticker on the emptied ones and put them in the back for next review week.
The rest, I assess how much time to clear and book it in my calendar.

My handwritten cards are not as cool as your sticker. I need to up my game.

I was once told that static things in our environment fade out so we don't see them.
After I was married, I didn't want to have my wife's photo essentially disappear from view, so I put two pictures in the frame and switched the one showing once a month. It worked.

So move your sticker around once in a while.
Clayton

A rudimentary understanding of evolution is required to understand vaccines and the omicron variant.

 

[Matt_M]

Could you elaborate on what "Achieve + Keep" means? I am not following.

Personally, I am not a fan of adorning my monitor or laptop with labeling or stickers (I like maintaining the original minimalist industrial design). Though for some cases, like my monitor, there is not any space to do so (it does not have a bezel that is not actual "screen").

More to the point, I think there is definitely a possibility of going numb to the reminder if it is always reminding you. You will have to let us know how it goes with the reminder and how long you're able to consistently keep your inbox down to zero. I'd be interested if these kinds of decorations achieve the desired effect. I have absolutely zero personalization design skills, therefore I never decorated any of my offices (incl. my home office).

 

[Murray]

I have had phases where I really wanted to reinforce the habit of clarifying my inboxes so I updated a spreadsheet and graph each day showing the number of items left in each digital inbox, and a measurement in millimetres of how high the stack was in my physical inbox. Plus the total, which appeared automatically.

I would feel motivated to try to bend that graph down as low as I could get it. It is extra work though, so I don't use it permanently, just to help get things back on track on occasion.

Eventually I even worked out a way to have the graph display on my desktop and update when I saved the spreadsheet. Which was pretty cool on a tech level but honestly probably getting a bit into procrastination territory lol.

 

[cfoley]

Before GTD:

• I checked email constantly.
• Anything I felt hadn't been dealt with completely stayed in my inbox.
• This led to lots more staying in my inbox too.
• When it all got too much, I purged it down to a mere 50-100 emails.

Shortly after implementing GTD:

• I checked email at 10am and 3pm.
• I processed the inbox to zero. (probably 90% of the time.)

For me, completely changing my relationship with email helped me to build the inbox zero habit.

These days, I check my email on a more ad-hoc basis but on days when I want to concentrate on something, I try to leave it until mid afternoon.

 

[schmeggahead]

I updated a spreadsheet and graph each day showing the number of items left in each digital inbox

I'm doing this now with my 3x5 cards writing date and inbox beginning size and end size. My drafts inbox had 96 when I started tracking (30 now) and My Apple Notes list had 82 (56 now) and My Desktop In folder has 18 in it. It's great to see the numbers get smaller each day and motivates me to devote time to get back to zero. Email has been at zero almost everyday in 2022.

There's nothing like clear inboxes!
Clayton

Be Brave. The rest is easy - John McCain