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Success ! Inbox Zero = Zero
by Andrew McCaskey
Let the record show that the line was crossed at 4:58PM, the last email pushed from the inbox on my day job Outlook. Inbox size = 0 Bytes. Close to 100MB of messages and attachments now in their proper place and off my plate.
The crucial question – which I have also used to effect to close the thread on several other messages this week – has five effective words. Just pick the longest message in the thread, and then reply “Do You Still Need This ?” It might be the most time saving question that you can ask, especially if the email has aged for a long time.
The inspiration for all of this comes from the site 43Folders.com Roughly ten sections – and my pick and choose approach on techniques might be radically different from someone else’s approach.
For example: EmailDMZ – will clear your inbox in five minutes. Create a folder called EmailDMZ, goto Inbox, select all and drag to the DMZ. Then, with the admonishment “go and sin no more” you resolve to keep the inbox at bay, and whittle the DMZ pile at your leisure. I define leisure differently, so I knew that one was not going to work for me.
So I did the more plodding approach, weeding out a lot and consigning the rest to folders by project, customer or topic. SDR listener Jacob Stoller who wrote recommending the “big daddy of them all” Google Desktop – as a tool for aiding in the desktop search. I’m afraid that I can’t comment – as I have not used Google Desktop – due to security concerns of day job proprietary info going elsewhere or being indexed by others. For an independent consultant or student – it might be a great solution.
The offline nature of Copernic Desktop was what attracted me to that tool, and when LookOut for Outlook became available, it also filled the bill. Microsoft Desktop seems to work well also – just differently. Any of these are better at drilling through folders looking for stuff than I am.If you believe that it is “Best to begin with the end in mind”, it’s OK to skip ahead. There is a great summary in Inbox Zero called What have you Learned – and if you are interested in joining Inbox Zero it might be the inspiration that you need.
One of the guideposts along the way will be some articles from the excellent site for personal productivity at 43 Folders , specifically an article entitled “My email diet” in the Inbox Zero – Day 1series.
From the 43Folders Inbox Zero process, I’m learning that these tools are no substitute for ruthless triage of escalating questions:
1. What does this message mean to me and why do I care ?
2. What action, if any, does this message require of me ?
3. What’s the most elegant way to close out this message and the nested action it contains ?
These questions were most valuable getting from 400 to 100 items. After that, the default
Outlook folder “Unread Items” kept the new stuff in one place – just reading headers and sender lines for easy zapping
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