Keeping your email inbox clear - Inbox Zero
I’m always looking for ways to save time. The more I save the more I have time for the things I really want to do. Well, one of the biggest time-wasters in my day is dealing with email.
It’s not just the new messages coming in, either. I tend to let things pile up, either answered or unanswered, and it can grow to be quite an albatross around your neck, seeing those endless rows of emails staring you in the face.
Enter an email management idea called Inbox Zero.
The brainchild of a fellow by the name of Merlin Mann, Inbox Zero is
a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible.
I knew this was going to be helpful system when one of the first things Merlin tells you is to drop the guilt about email:
If you’ve allowed your email to get out of control, and you can trace any of the resulting procrastination and inaction back to feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, or just the general feeling that you alone completely suck at this, quit it now.
You are so not alone. Everyone I know (including me) is overwhelmed with email and unsure of how to make it better in a given day.
So have a look through Merlin’s website. You can also see a video of his ideas, as he presented them to the folks at Google a year or so ago.
I’m not good enough at implementing Inbox Zero yet to be fully satisfied with my handling of email, but it has improved greatly, and I have more time and less stress!
