How I Deal With Work Email Using Zero Inbox

At work, I’ve had many co-workers comment in astonishment on the number of emails they see in my inbox. Why, you ask? Because it’s always empty.

I utilize a strategy called Zero Inbox (or Inbox Zero), which was created by Merlin Mann. Here’s the original presentation Merlin gave to Google back in 2007.

This process has made my email much easier to handle because it ensures that I process every message, making a decision on how to handle each one.

Rules

I do one of four actions with every message: reply to it, defer it, archive it, or delete it. Here are the basic rules that I follow.

• Every item must be processed until the entire inbox is empty.
• Not every email requires a reply, so the vast majority of email I receive in my work email box is deleted.
• If an email requires a response and can be handled in just a few minutes (three to five, for example), I will reply to it and get it out of the way. After I’ve sent the reply, the original is usually deleted, unless I have a reason to archive it. More on archiving later.
• If the email requires a response, but takes longer to handle than just a few minutes, it goes into a folder named Actionable. I’m deferring the email until later, after the entire inbox is processed or whenever is timely based on priorities.
• If I have an email that I should keep, for any reason, I put it in a folder named Archived. There’s no need for a folder structure. If I need to find an email, I can simply use desktop search which has been built into Mac OS X for many years now. Windows has it, too.

Getting Started

I started out by creating an email DMZ. I immediately took all emails in my inbox and moved them into one folder, and right away I felt a relief because my inbox was totally empty.

After migrating existing mail to the DMZ, I immediately implemented my zero inbox strategy on all new emails that arrived. Doing this helped get me in the habit right away. Not long thereafter, I took the time to go through all of the emails that I moved and processed every single one of them. While I ended up deleting the vast majority, I found several that I forgot about which required action on my part.

Conclusions

After adopting this system, I found that I didn’t need to keep the amount of email in my entire email account as I previously through. I didn’t realize the burden I was putting on myself by keeping all of that data around, and I’m sure you will realize that, too, if you were to implement your own strategy.

How I’ve Reduced Stress at Work

Within the last month, I have made some changes in my life to help reduce my stress by decreasing distractions and interruptions.

• I don’t pay much attention to Twitter anymore.  I’ve gone from constantly checking my timeline throughout an entire day (so I didn’t miss a thing) to casually checking it every few days.
• I’ve disabled the majority of push notifications on my iPhone which has resulted in fewer interruptions at work.  Of the ones still enabled, they’re almost all “badge only” which is passive when compared to a loud sound or pop-up.
• Along those same lines, I’ve switched my settings on my iPhone to manually check my email accounts.  In other words, it’s not checking for new emails throughout the day, but only when I open the email application itself.
• I deleted my email archive at work.  I had been keeping the majority of messages sent and received for the last 5 years, resulting in a gigabytes of data.  I took a further step by configuring Outlook to permanently delete trashed and sent items that are over 60 days old, preventing the archive from building up again, but keeping enough email around just in case I need something.
• Instant messaging is now turned off at work.  Most people don’t realize that interruptions are one of the best ways to kill productivity.  The same thing goes for phone calls.  So, if someone needs to talk to me, they should use email, which is what I’ve always preferred they do.
• I’ve returned to working one day at home every week.  This has helped get me out of the office, which is a loud, distracting place.  As much as I truly enjoy all of the people I work with, I also enjoy having a smaller “to do” list now that I am getting some more things done throughout the week.
• I’ve stopped trying to multitask.  No one is actually good at it, no matter what they claim, especially me.  I’m more productive by concentrating on one thing and doing it right the first time, as opposed to doing it wrong and having to waste time fixing it later.  There’s also less stress because I’m not worried about a bunch of other tasks, except the one at hand.

These changes came about after recently reading a couple of books: Rework by Jason Fried and David Hansson; and, The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss.  They’re both excellent reads that I recommend to everyone.

By no means do these changes make me the most productive person.  No one is perfect and I don’t care to be that person, anyway.  I still enjoy chatting about non-work things with friends at the office, check Facebook and Google Reader when I have time, and still check my work email more often than I should.  Yet, I feel less overall stress and that has resulted in better work.

Recent Happenings

Recently, I’ve been taking care of a new cat named Charlie (pictured right).  He was a stray that was hanging out at my parents house recently, so I decided to take him home and sort him out.

As it turns out, he belonged to one of the neighbors, but they kept him outside all of the time, which is definitely not healthy for cats, so it was no shock when I took him to the vet to learn that he had a parasite.  Thankfully, the treatment was extremely easy and now Charlie is a healthy boy.

In work-related news, I took a trip up to Detroit to attend a one-day conference put on by one of our vendors.  They invited me up there to do a 90 minute presentation about what we do at work, how we use the vendor’s product, and how to use the vendor’s online self-service tools.  Overall, everything went very well, and it was a lot of fun.

Lastly, last month I went to go see Shiny Toy Guns at the Music Mill up on the north side.  It was my first time at the venue — very nice.  The show was great; they played all the songs I loved, including some new ones on their recent album.

That’s all for now, folks!

Tubs

We got bored at work the other night.

Vegas, Concluded

Is it bad that I’m writing this nearly a month since I was in Las Vegas?

Yes, it is, but I’m still going to do it.

To be honest, there isn’t a ton to report. The majority of the rest of my time in Las Vegas was spent working in a cold, loud data center cramped for space with some of my co-workers.

Fortunately, I had time to see more of my friends out there: Rick and Allison. Rick and I have known each other for years online, but didn’t get a chance to hang out until recently. Allison used to be my manager when I worked for ExchangeNet in Cleveland way back in 1998. It was great to see them both!

In conclusion, I’m convinced that I wouldn’t visit Las Vegas if it weren’t for my job. I can’t really see myself visiting there otherwise, except for the people I know, but at least I got a chance to experience Las Vegas a little bit and add it to the list of places I’ve seen.