One recent thread on the Twitter #sachat has related to the quest for something called “In Box Zero.” Out of sheer desperation for some motivation to get my e-mail life under control, I posted a challenge to readers and participants of the #sachat to see if we could motivate each other to get our e-mail situations under control.
Postings and responses were mixed. I could talk for a while and analyze whether or not it is possible to be productive when there are 2,000 e-mails in your In Box, but I’ll let your own conscience ring in on that one as you are asking yourself if your current system is working. Instead, I’ll share a bit about what I did and how I’m hoping to reclaim my productivity.
This quest for In Box Zero was inspired by a few frustrating e-mail searches during situations where I needed to be able to quickly locate an email. As I was frustrated by the huge numbers of messages that kept coming up no matter how specific I thought my searches were, I realized something big.
My e-mails are important, but not that important.
I owe it to myself to manage my own life intentionally and with the same care that I coach my own students and staff to do for each other. I am really starting to tire of all of the student affairs culture that asks us to wear our stress as a “badge of honor” as we tell anyone who will listen how busy we are. This has to stop, especially if we are going to accomplish the respect we are looking for. We need to show our campus leadership and ourselves that we have our *stuff* together.
Getting to the point of In Box Zero took about two days of moderate focus (I will confess!! It was fun – a nerdy “spring cleaning” of sorts). Here were some important parts of my attempt:
- Email folders are my new best friend. If you think of a paper-driven system, my former In Box was akin to a pile of papers with the one that just came in on the top. They are now filed in a system that makes sense, kind of like file folders, so if I need to quickly review emails all relating to the same event or issue they are still there.
- Un-subscribing like it’s my job. In campus activities we get a lot of email from artists, agents, vendors, etc. In many cases, these subscriptions are not ones that I asked for but are ones that come with membership in associations. My past approach was just deleting, but now I’m also making an effort to unsubscribe to those I will never need.
- Ruthless deleting. For every message, I thought hard about “what are the chances I will need this info again?” and “can I get this information somewhere else if I needed it again?”
I got to In Box Zero in time for this past Thursday’s #sachat, as promised. The main question is, can this last? From here out, I’m hoping to change some things about the way I work to take more control over my management of information. Based on the Tuesday Tally results, I think at least a few of you might be interested in joining me on this quest!
- In Box Zero is the goal each week. I don’t think I can manage it each day, but I think by the end of the week each week I can do this.
- No more using email as a To Do List. This was sage advice I received (from the wise @reyjunco) and I will most definitely oblige. Most of the reasons why I was keeping so many emails was “as a reminder” that I had to do something. I was also keeping a To Do List that usually included all of the email items, but not always remembering them. From here on, I’m deleting or filing those messages after I enter the task on my list. Now, my e-mail is in better control and my To Do list is now more of an accurate picture of what is on my plate.
- When In Box Zero is accomplished, close the e-mail. Again, sage advice from Reynol Junco (@reyjunco…follow him!). With e-mail being empty, the accumulation of a few messages isn’t a big deal anymore. The peace of mind of not worrying about every little message coming in for a few hours is quite nice.
- Set up some rules. For the e-mail subscriptions that I kept, I set up auto rules for the ones that I wanted to read when I have time. This way, the messages are out of my day-to-day message flow and I can review them when I get time.
- Manage the blog reading. Before I really figured out the world of the blog, I was subscribed to some blogs via email/RSS. I finally caught up to the rest of the world and started using Google Reader in the way it is supposed to be used. My newsflash: Collect all of these great messages in one place…and that place is NOT in my email! This way, I can use Google Reader when I have the time to read the blog posts.
The feeling of getting the e-mail world under control is this ENFJ’s “natural high.” This is a great feeling and I really believe I can approach the work week with a bit more sanity. I have this community to thank for some motivation.
For more on In Box Zero, Merlin Mann is the guru you want to read more about. Check out his 43folders.com site. More About In Box Zero
So, are you willing to give this a try, or are you sticking with the “I’m Too Busy” explanation? If you can’t work on this, what are your struggles with managing your e-mail and getting control over your work?
Tags: efficiency, email, inbox, organization
