Inbox Zero
Blog, Work January 17th, 2008So it’s kinda the GTD hype right now and I jokingly twittered that getting my email inbox to zero would be my 2009 resolution. However after reading Keith Robinson’s blog about how he GTD, I decided that I really need to reorganize how I archive email and get to Inbox Zero.
I spent a couple of hours one night going thru my inbox and old saved emails and got to Inbox -200. Still sounds bad huh… Well, I’ve become sort of an information pack rat over the past few years so from +2000 to -200 in one night is good. I’ll get the rest taken care of tonight [hopefully]. 
If you have any email tips let me know.
June 4th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I’ve always been so anal about organization of files, digital assets, and email. I first started by using folders in mail to organize and archive everything. That didn’t really help so I started using MailTags and Mail ActOn, to apply automatic labeling by project code or manual quick tagging to create to-dos or to auto file into a smart folder. While helpful and extremely organized, email was still just eating too much time.
Personally I found the easiest way to manage mail is to do one of three things with each message. Reply, delete or file. Anything that is in my inbox i assume needs to be acted on and once it has it immediately goes into the trash unless it has important material to file for later. I don’t know if this is the Inbox Zero method but its simple and seems to work.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Hey Anthony,
Actually you are doing the “inbox zero” method.
After writing this post I switched my email servers to gmail. This has made a tremendous impact on my email organization. I’ve been at “inbox zero” for 3 months now. I would recommend using gmail to anyone. I also use a nifty little app called Mailplane. Which makes for a pretty nice experience.