The power of the empty inbox

5 November 2018

In the past I’ve been able to maintain an Inbox Zero habit for my email and have blogged a lot about how great it is. I truly believe it’s one of the best things I do for my sanity.

This year, I’ve done a pretty poor job of emptying my inbox every day. I let messages accumulate that required action, with the fear that if I moved them from my inbox, I’d forget about them. But what happened instead is that by leaving these messages in my inbox until it’s bloated, I can’t even see these “important” emails among all the others.

When that happens, my inbox becomes source of stress so I avoid dealing with it. And then not only am I not focusing on the emails that require action, even the easy responses don’t get sent. It’s a bad cycle, obviously.

Yesterday, I finally emptied my inbox after probably months. I started the weekend with something like 285 messages in my inbox. I sorted by sender and got rid of the easy ones, like the daily emails I receive from a newspaper I subscribe to. I filed a bunch of documents that had been emailed to me, which is very quick to do one at a time but a little time consuming if you let them accumulate.

Then I was left with those emails that I had let languish in my inbox because I didn’t want to deal with them. And guess what? I dealt with them! It felt great. I felt empowered and liberated and accomplished.

This morning, I woke up to just a few emails that had come in overnight and it was very easy to delete (or reply to) them. I’ve feeling great about keeping up the habit because I know from vast experience how beneficial it is.

Here is why I love emptying my inbox at the end of the day. (I’m taking this from a blog post I wrote almost exactly a year ago.)

It forces me to make decisions about the emails I receive: I either respond, archive, delete, or file each one. (I file very few emails; I archive most of those I want to keep and find them with a search.)
It prompts me to get rid of junk and unsubscribe from emails that don’t serve me.
It means that nothing gets lost in my email inbox.
It discourages procrastination—if I want to get the email out of my inbox, I need to act on it. So I’m a prompt responder to people who reach out to me. That’s good for business (and personal relationships).
It gives me visual peace and a feeling of accomplishment. Every day.

The best part is that when I have only one day’s email accumulation, it takes me less than five minutes to empty my inbox on a typical day.

I encourage you to give it a try. If you have a lot of emails in your inbox, here are some ideas for getting down to zero without too much angst.

Sort your emails by sender and delete or file as many as you can.
If emails remain in your inbox because they require action, consider putting those actions on your task list, rather than using your inbox as a task list.
Use the tools at your disposal, like flags in your email client, or forwarding emails to Evernote and set a reminder or try Boomerang, if you use gmail, to help you keep track of emails without having to keep them in your inbox.
Act on emails as you read them, rather than letting them languish and clutter up your inbox.
Make ample use of the Archive feature of your email client to get emails that you want to keep but don’t require a reply or action out of your inbox.

Trust me, dealing with email is easier with a streamlined inbox. Inbox Zero is not only achievable, it can be easy to maintain when you commit to it. I’m so glad I’m back on track with it.

Tagged with: email, habits