HOW TO ACHIEVE
INBOX ZERO
IN FIVE
EASY STEPS
By Julia Doherty
www.green-umbrella.biz
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
HOW TO ACHIEVE
INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
I have now been implementing an inbox zero tactic since 2013.
After reading David Allen’s book called “Getting Things Done” - The art of stressfree productivity, I can honestly say that this has completely changed my life.
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
THE PAIN
200+ emails a day! My inbox was like my “to do’ list. I would leave emails in my
inbox until I had time to deal with them, and my list would get longer and longer.
My emails were constantly going ping, ping, ping throughout the day. I would be
checking emails while in the queue for my lunch and even when consuming my
sandwich!
I have tried numerous tactics to deal with email. I remember setting up rules (but
then I would forget to check the folders and would miss important emails.)
If this sounds like you, then I urge you to read on as I now have a secret formula that
has worked wonders for me. It takes a while to set up, but it is worth the initial pain.
THE MINDSET
You will not only need to change your mindset towards email and develop a new
habit, but you will also need to start to the process of educating other people as to
how you will now be dealing with their emails going forward. You need to remember
that your inbox does not set your agenda for the day; it is the other way round! (That
took me a while to get used to).
BEFORE YOU START
SET ASIDE SOME TIME AND REGISTER
WITH NUDGEMAIL.COM
If you are going to do this, then please allow at least one hour completely dedicated
to sorting out your inbox! (Saying that, it took me about 3 hours as I had over 2000
emails in my inbox, which was not a good starting place!).
Your next step is to register with a free service called Nudgemail.com.
Stop clogging your inbox with simple to-do’s. Use Nudgemail and we’ll remind you
about that important thing – later. Believe me, this neat little tool will be your knight
in shining armour!
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
STEP 1
SET UP THREE FOLDERS
If you are using MS Outlook, Mac Mail or any other mailbox, your software will allow
you to set up some folders. So here are the three folders that I have set up:
1.
File
2.
Read
3.
Hold
STEP 2
UNSUBSCRIBE,
UNSUBSCRIBE,
UNSUBSCRIBE
The next step is to work through your inbox and unsubscribe to any of those emails
that you never read, and you continually click delete! I had loads from various
Linkedin groups, wowcher, Groupon, and other things that I had signed up for over
the years.
I am now in the habit of unsubscribing to things, rather than just clicking delete when
I get a spammy email arrive in my inbox that is not welcome.
I am now going to assume that the remaining emails that you subscribe too are going
to be news articles or blog articles that you can read at a later stage.
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
Therefore you now have two options:1.
Set up a new rule for all of your subscriptions emails to be sent to your “read” folder OR
2. You can use the new Hootlet Synchronization Extension, and have all RSS feeds directed to there so that they do not even touch your email. (Here is the video from Hootsuite to explain what I mean)
STEP 3
IMMEDIATELY
IMPLEMENT THE
2 MIN GOLDEN
RULE
This is the part of the process that makes complete sense to me. The golden rule
is, if answering the email is going to take you more than two mins to reply, then you
need to move it to one of your three folders, or nudge it to a date in the future:
1. Action – If an email is going to take more than two mins to respond, then you need to “nudge” it. I tend to use specific dates ie: [email protected] (if I do not need to action the email until a specific date), or send it to
[email protected] (example). If you need to action it later that day then you can send it to [email protected] and it will reappear in your inbox 2hrs later. Remove the clutter. If you keep seeing that email that you need to action in your inbox then you are taking up valuable headspace.
Out of site is out of mind!
2.
File – emails that need to be kept, but filed elsewhere.
3.
Read – perhaps it’s a long email that needs your attention, or it is an email that is of interest to you but you can easily read it and reply later.
4. Hold – Sometimes you are waiting for a response from someone before you can reply.
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
STEP 4
TURN YOUR
EMAILS OFF
Easily said than done, but it is achievable. I check my emails once every hour, and
then immediately turn them off once I have actioned them and have a clear inbox.
I do not have email notifications “pinging” in the
corner as this distraction is highly unproductive.
So please turn these notifications off. You don’t
need them. If the email is urgent, then the person
in question will pick up the phone or contact you
in another way. This is the start of the education
process for your clients and works colleagues.
Talking of notifications, this is the point that you
also need to turn off notifications on your phone.
You know what it’s like… your phone is sitting on
your desk, and you hear the “ping” then you see
the little red dot appear. What is it about those
little red dots that makes us drop everything? We
become like someone possessed, and we have
to clear the red dots to make the world a better
place! Turn your notifications off right now.
Do NOT progress onto the next steps until
you have turned emails off!
HOW TO ACHIEVE INBOX ZERO IN FIVE EASY STEPS
STEP 5
CLEAR YOUR FOLDERS
EACH DAY
This is part of my morning routine now. It is too easy to have a clear inbox and then
lots of full folders. Over the years, I became lazy and left emails to stack up in my
folders. Out of sight is out of mind. This has led me to a fair amount of trouble in
the past, and I also missed a deadline for a very important tender (as it was sat in my
“read” folder rather than my “to do” folder).
The default for Nudgemails to arrive in your inbox is 6.30am. I am an early bird and I
like to prepare for the day, so I have changed mine to 5am.
FINAL TIP: AN APP
TO HELP DEVELOP A
HABIT
The final action that I needed to do to make sure that the above actions became a
habit, not just a fad, was to register with an iPhone app called “Coach.me”. Coach.
Me (previously known as the lift app) is a fabulous app that encourages you to gain a
new habit, and I know that this was crucial to my success.
How do you manage
your emails?
Are they a bottomless pit
or do you have them
completely under
control?