Since "Zero" Inboxes. . . .

[gtdstudente]

Fellow GTDers

Since "Zero" Inboxes are seemingly are a GTD 'non-negotiable'

Any Tips-&-Tricks in keeping Email inbox(es) at zero?

Thank you very much

 

[cfoley]

Read each email only once from the inbox. Be strict about this. Whenever you read an email in the inbox, go through the clarify and organise steps and make sure it is gone from the inbox. I use the feature for action support if I will need to refer to the email to complete an action.

 

[mcogilvie]

Read each email only once from the inbox. Be strict about this. Whenever you read an email in the inbox, go through the clarify and organise steps and make sure it is gone from the inbox. I use the feature for action support if I will need to refer to the email to complete an action.

I find this unrealistic, because I get some email which may require considerable thinking and unpacking. I have learned that a premature focus on next actions may be inefficient and even counterproductive. I may flag such email, or I may forward them to my Things inbox, which links to the original email. The point for me is to keep aware of what I need to do, and keep making progress. But everyone is different.

 

[cfoley]

When I get email like that, I either:

- set a next action to think about it.
- set a next action to extract relevent info into project notes.
- create an action of "Natural planning for X"
- set an agenda item to talk it through with someone
- tickle it if I feel like it needs more time.

One way or another it leaves my inbox.

 

[mcogilvie]

When I get email like that, I either:

- set a next action to think about it.
- set a next action to extract relevent info into project notes.
- create an action of "Natural planning for X"
- set an agenda item to talk it through with someone
- tickle it if I feel like it needs more time.

One way or another it leaves my inbox.

My usual practice is to forward potentially actionable email to my Things inbox and archive it. Flagged email is just email I don’t have time to deal with now, but will within 24 hours. My collect step seems a bit more separate from processing and organizing than yours does. Your fourth and fifth actions would be things I would do from within Things. My email inbox is so noisy, and has stuff I will read or may read, so even after deleting irrelevant email it’s not a good place for focused processing.

 

[cfoley]

Ah yes. I treat my email inbox as a GTD inbox.

I think I treat any sort of instant messenger like you treat email. It is part of the ambient information environment. Sometimes I capture things from it by forwarding to braintoss.

 

[GTDChemist]

I find this unrealistic, because I get some email which may require considerable thinking and unpacking. I have learned that a premature focus on next actions may be inefficient and even counterproductive. I may flag such email, or I may forward them to my Things inbox, which links to the original email. The point for me is to keep aware of what I need to do, and keep making progress. But everyone is different.

Could the next action in these cases be to schedule time on the calendar to unpack emails?

 

[mcogilvie]

Could the next action in these cases be to schedule time on the calendar to unpack emails?

One could, if it was necessary or desirable. For me, the little item count on my Things inbox keeps me aware. And really, processing and organizing inbox items seems like a good use of my time whenever I do it. If I go a little slower on some items than others, they may need the extra time.

 

[boomer70]

I get overwhelmed when I see too many emails in the inbox which has the effect of making me avoid it even more. To counter this, as someone who is on the road quite a bit and is reviewing emails on my mobile device which does not have the ability to turn an email into a next action, I will reply to, forward, delete or archive an email not requiring a next action or more than a quick response. The rest I move to an @Action Required folder. When I am at my desktop, I will go offline, process anything new in my In Box then go through my @Action Required folder and process those, may of which I have already considered what the next action is. This works well except for occasions when I misread the title as @Procrasinate and not @Action Required.

 

[gtdstudente]

Ah yes. I treat my email inbox as a GTD inbox.

I think I treat any sort of instant messenger like you treat email. It is part of the ambient information environment. Sometimes I capture things from it by forwarding to braintoss.

@cfoley

Interesting

"ambient information environment." love it! LOL


Meanwhile . . . finding as long as email inbox remains attractively 'Zero' as much as possible

As such on this end, sending 'everything' through/to email (albeit only written-text so far) currently seems so far be the easiest, fastest, simple, robust, trust-worthy, and ubiquitous way to organize as an 'on the go' digital GTD platform for contexts . . . in addition to 'antiquated' pen(s) and paper embedded clipboard(s) also deployed for capturing and doing 'on the fly' . . . especially for planning [preparing] as if the sheets of paper were 'extra-large' index cards

Humbly and accurately/appropriately asking myself "what took you so GTD long?"

Oh well . . . "life in the big GTD city"

 

[Lucas W.]

I would simply say – do not overload your inboxes – which means – reduce the number of inboxes and empty them on regular basis.

But it is equally important not to clutter your inboxes.

There a lot of things which you know immediately what to do with – so it is not efficient to forward them to your inbox – and if your tool gives you this option easy I would suggest to capture, clarify and organize such items in one go.

Finally, it might be better to take some actions just when the issue arrive – from my observations employees who defer issues often – no mater if they use lists or not – usually struggle with managing their workload and priorities – and just get poorer results. It is so much true in business.