Over the weekend, I hit a big milestone and felt more relief and general happiness than I've felt in days.
And it's because I finally, FINALLY reached Inbox Zero. It's taken a while. Like, weeks. I've been fighting to empty my inbox since I got promoted to online managing editor, but I feel like there's always something in my inbox that I need to leave out for myself. Emails from professors, some of my online people, editors, our editor in chief, my newsroom advisor. A reminder to do my FAFSA. Blog comments.
I also use my inbox as a to-do list, which is another reason why SO MUCH STUFF stays in there all the time. But as of 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16, I REACHED INBOX ZERO.
When there's no emails left, there's nothing left to do.
When you physically empty your inbox of all emails, answering all that need answering (or putting them in a folder where you can get to them later) and taking care of all that needs taken care of, you know that you have nothing left to do (at least here.) And it's a HUGE weight that every once in a while, you need taken off of your shoulders.
No emails means you didn't miss anything.
I know a lot of people get LOST in their inbox. There's just so much stuff going on that many emails slip through the cracks and get lost. But when you physically go through and delete and deal with everything... there's no more loss. Things can't get lost.
It also means you find the things you lost.
I can't tell you how many times I've been emptying out my inbox and found something I really should've dealt with earlier, something I almost missed the deadline on or really did miss entirely. If my inbox was tidy, I would've found it earlier or never lost it. If I'd never gone to attempt Inbox Zero, I might've never found the email at all.
Separate your inbox with folders. If you use Gmail, use the promotions/social/forums/etc. option and divide your inbox even further. When there's smaller sections of emails, there's smaller batches of emails to get rid of at a time. Tackle each section every day to delete the unnecessary, so you have even less to attack at the end of the week.
When you read an email and deem it unnecessary, useless, or dealt with, delete it right then. If you think you might need it later, send it to a folder where you could reference it. Don't hang on to things that don't require any action from you — it just makes your inbox seem more scary.
Do this every single day, every single email.
On the day you decide is "Inbox Zero" day, take it down all at once. I'm not kidding. Dedicate an hour, an hour and a half, two hours to taking your email down. If you were good about keeping the junk in check throughout the week, then this shouldn't be so hard. I did it in less than an hour today.
Delete all of the junk, all of the things you missed through the week.
And then you're free.
Always feels good when that happens!
ReplyDeleteI think deleting is the best thing ever! I don't put things in folders because I don't feel like there is enough to do that, but there is enough to delete like crazy!
ReplyDeleteI try to get there every night, and usually do. I love inbox zero!!
ReplyDeleteI need to do this. I'm still trying to figure out how to organize my blogging email account because I have no idea what to do with them all!
ReplyDelete