Back in February, I wrote a post titled, “Basics of Email Organization” and I promised to post more soon but I never did. Yeah, I’m a bad person but I doubt thousands of people are waiting around for my next post in anticipation for all of the joy & productivity my second post will bring. I did want to discuss something called Inbox Zero. That term was either invented or at least made popular by none other than Merlin Mann. I’ve actually embedded the rather lengthy video below where Merlin explains Inbox Zero to Googlers.
It’s a great video and worth watching but if you’re pressed for time, I’ll simply explain that it’s a level of organization that helps you achieve an inbox free of unread items. Of course, this doesn’t mean the 43 other folders you have don’t have things in them but you know where everything is and the things that must be answered aren’t being ignored. When I send a tweet out that says, “Inbox Zero” I actually have achieved that to the point where even my spam folder has zero unread messages. How in the hell do I do this? That’s a good question and I’m going to tell you how in one paragraph…..
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For starters, don’t use Gmail and invest some time in properly setting up Outlook, Entourage, Eudora or whatever Mail client works for you. Add folders, master rules & actions and then become efficient. Answer email once per hour, learn how to type faster and add contacts to your system’s address book so addresses auto complete with ease. Purge every single piece of BACN and newsletter you receive. Unsubscribe to the point where you don’t even know when you get a new message on Facebook or what movie is coming from Netflix in 2 days. Finally, don’t ignore a single email and finish every day with every single email marked as read. Don’t file for “bankruptcy” and mark it all as read but continue tweaking your system until you can do that. Master tasks either within Outlook or via a shareware app and don’t flag emails that have appointment details, make calendar appointments and invite people that are attending. Setup a few documents with answers to questions you get often. If you get the same question more than once, then setup a draft email with a canned response. It saves hours a week. Finally, be diligent, responsible and happy because body language can’t be described over email and your words need to convey your true feelings. If you suck at this, a lot of people are going to think you’re angry all of the time.
i did all of this in one paragraph. At some point in the future, I’ll elaborate but for the time being, learn it yourself and simply use my recommendations to find the best way that works for you.