How I Tamed My Inbox

March 20, 2008 · Comments

empty inbox Guess what? I finally cracked the nut on keeping my email inbox empty. The trick is all in what you do when you get them in. I’ll share what I did, and if it works for you, great. If it starts to fail for me, I’ll tell you so in another post. But I have a good feeling about this.

You’ll Need

  • An archive folder (in Gmail, this is a button. On other systems, you need somewhere to store stuff, in case you need to search for details later).
  • A calendaring software. I use Google Calendar.
  • A project tracking software. I use Things for Mac. You could use anything lets you group projects into contexts.
  • A file folder structure (online at least, and maybe mirrored in the real world – hat tip to my hero,Get it Done Guy, for this).
  • Two processes: sorting when mail comes in, and reviewing your projects regularly.

Quick Overview

Next, I’ll explain how this all works together. I’ll talk about:

  • Processing incoming mail.
  • Using the Calendar.
  • Project Structure.
  • Consistent Review.

Processing Incoming Mail

Mail comes in- Check mail X times a day tops. (I’m trying for 4, but not there yet). When it comes in, see if you can just reply right away. Try to close all informational loops in one go. Points off for “ping pong” emails.

Process step 1- If it’s not a “right away” answer, sort it into a project area. I’m calling “project areas” out by context. In Getting Things Done, David Allen uses physical context, like @computer, @phone, @mall. In my case, I’ve used the following project contexts:

  • Family/Home – my first priority, of course.
  • Commitments – these are things where someone’s awaiting a response or action for me that takes more than a few minutes.
  • Projects – These are more regimented things, like when the boss asks you to build out a new experience at a conference.
  • Speaking – I do lots of speaking, and I want to keep my commitments straight, and my details sorted.
  • Blogging – This has become where I stuff my “Hey, Chris. I have a social network about porcupines. Will you blog about it?” requests, so I can give them serious thought. (And yes, please feel free to contact me about your special amazing new whatever, if you think it fits the stuff I talk about here).
  • Personal – This deals with things like “file your taxes” and “upgrade cell phone plan” which matter only to me.
  • Research – I have lots of projects that are more for “rainy day” or “someday/maybe” so that’s where those go.

These are MY context areas. You could have completely different ones. More on projects in a bit.

Using the Calendar

If any of my projects are time specific, I put that information into Google Calendar. I then set up the reminders along the way. Further, if the project is large or lengthy, I set up little milestone time frames such that I will remember to work periodically on projects all the way up to their due date.

This part, the setting milestone reminders in the calendar, has changed my effectiveness, but I only JUST started doing this, so I’ll let you know if it makes the difference I hope it does.

Project Structure

UNDER my above-mentioned context areas are specific projects. For all my projects, I have tasks and milestones, notes, tags, and due dates for each part of the project. For example, I have notes and details on a new conference I’m launching for marketers for September in the Boston area.

Like I said earlier, I use Things for the Mac. You could use 37 Signals Basecamp, or MS Project, or whatever. The tool isn’t the point.

Consistent Review

This will all break down fast if I don’t focus on Things as my “go to place” to see what needs doing. And if I don’t make THAT the focus of my day while working on projects, and slip back into hounding my inbox, the whole thing will fail. You’ve heard that someone with two watches can’t tell time? I believe that someone with multiple systems of managing their tasks and projects will probably fall on their face.

I’ve scheduled reviews into Google Calendar recurring over the next few months. If it works, I’ll extend the schedule of little pings to check my responsibilities.

We’ll Check Back On This Later

This is a work in progress. I’ll let you know how it works out for me. In the mean time, tell me about you. How are YOU getting it all done? Does this make sense? Am I missing something obvious? How are you taming the savage project load?

By the way, Things doesn’t sync in any way with my BlackBerry and that’s a huge hole in this process. Hello? Could you fix that for me, Things? Anything?

Okay, what do YOU think?

Things

For another completely different (and most likely better) method, check out the famed and touted Inbox Zero series by Merlin Mann.

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  • I describe my Inbox Zero maintenance program at http://freedomfromorganization.com.

    It sounds like there's no clear differentiation between supporting project materials and actionable "later" emails that you haven't yet input into Things.

    Whenever an email requires an action, I hit 's' for star, and then go through my starred items regularly and input them into my project management system (pen and paper ... haven't met a software program that's worked for me yet, and I'm a strong believer that your process has to be there first, and then a program may or may not be available to fit that process). Once the action has been captured, I un-star (but it maintains the project label throughout).

    It also might be easier to name your labels after the project name and not the area. This makes it really easy to find only exactly what you're looking for on a given project. The point of Contexts is that there are some things you can only do in a certain environment (run an errand, make a phone call), and you can do any of your categories in any environment (presumably). If category is important for you to note, you could color all projects under Family light brown, etc.

    You also simply must start using the GMail Macros Greasemonkey extension for Firefox, if you're not. With the number of emails I'm sure you have each day, an extra keyboard shortcut or two would save you significant time.

    Don't beat yourself up over the "don't check email too many times per day" idea. That may be fine for people whose livelihoods don't depend on the Internet, but it's damn irresponsible to check email once or twice a day when your career is web-based. The key is not to *dwell* in your Inbox all day -- you want to hit a bunch of keyboard shortcuts and be in and out in a minute or two.
  • Hi Chris, great post. I have been trying to stay at inbox zero ever since the Merlin Mann Google presentation (re) circulated twitter a month or so ago. It's been going well so far (for my personal email atleast!)

    I use Google Calendar to process emails that are date sensitive, either reminders or events/meetings. With G Cal, if the date is formatted properly, you can add the event straight from the email.

    I also use Remember the Milk for storing to-do's by context. There is a method for keeping RTM in the sidebar for Firefox here so it is always available.

    I get way too many emails from work to try this yet. Perhpas if I can stick to this discipline for personal email, I can apply it to work...eventually.
  • Smashing tip mate. And considering that i get about an infinitesimal amount of email a day let alone on the hour this is quit helpful. Now only if we can do this with our free yahoo and hotmail accounts too. But on second hand, that's why we all have switch to google anyways.
  • Well articulated...thanks for the post and it's a big help. A few years ago a team of us tried the extreme approach - we erased every email that came in for one week without looking at it as a test. We then tested to see how much fell through the cracks. In the end, there were about 5 important things that fell through the cracks but since we received phone calls about those issues we were able to handle anyway. Now, I don't suggest this approach for a whole host of reasons and we haven't done anything like it since - rather I just point it out because....you must be very diligent in asking "is this important/do I need to respond/do I need to be copied on all of this/etc...". Organization of email is great and this post help immensely with that, but it's also important to cut down on the amount of incoming email in the first place.
  • Chris, I already take your RSS feed, and benefit from it. I've just twittered this to some colleagues who are crumbling under the wieght of their inboxes. Seeing your mail on one page really makes a difference.
  • Hi, Chris,

    I like your e-mail system. If you'd like to add a powerful tweak, check out the book "Do It Tomorrow" by Mark Forster. Mark advocates scanning your e-mail several times, but only to take action on things that REQUIRE immediate response. Everything else, you defer dealing until tomorrow. Tomorrow, you limit your action time to processing the (fixed size) inbox from yesterday. Each day you get the experience of emptying your inbox and completing your TO DO list. It's very powerful!

    Best wishes,

    Stever Robbins
    host of The Get-It-Done Guy
  • Wow. Gush gush. Stever commented on my post??? (honestly, I'm a big fan, and you need to be, too.)
  • Check out http://diggreponsitory.blogspot.com/2007/12/spa... - Gmail is still liable for spam attacks unless you do a little patchwork with filters and labels to remove spam. GMail still hasn't rectified the problem, but you can fix it yourself with a little elbow grease.
  • Chris Baker
    I like this! I'm constantly trying to keep the inbox down. When it's at or below 5 I feel free and creative. Thanks for the ideas!!
  • Dang, Brogan. I'm just as overwhelmed by this post as I am with my inbox but I like what your saying. I think I need to keep reading it over and over and eventually I will have the strength to put it to use. :)
  • @Sarah - You'll get there. Baby steps. Read Stever's idea and the other people in the comments. They have even easier methods. : )
  • OMG!!! I did it!!! Thank you, Chris Brogan! You have saved my inbox! I can breathe now...
  • By the way, Casey McKinnon put a Flickr screencap of her empty inbox with a link to this post. That link got me 40 new reads of the post. That's just something to consider when you're posting to Flickr. Another source of traffic.
  • There seems to be a step missing in your description. I don't really understand how you get from categorizing email (which I do already) to what is shown in the image. Gmail puts every mail I have ever received into my inbox, even if I have read it and tagged it with labels. Is this picture meant to indicate that you have deleted all your email - if so, how can you refer back to it? I thought the point of gmail is that it keeps everything and makes it searchable.

    In other, traditional, email clients, I can move stuff from the inbox to folders to get it out of my face, but gmail does not seem to support that way of working. I can't even find a way of displaying only un-labelled conversations (which would seem to be the equivalent of a traditional inbox).

    Or have I missed something obvious? Baffled.
  • And looking at my Flickr stats on the screencap of my empty inbox (which has currently been seen 350 times):

    32% of traffic came from Pownce
    24% of traffic came from Flickr
    14% of traffic came from Twitter

    Another thing to consider ;)
  • Hi Frank--

    I don't use folders. I pile all the mail in an archive, because if there was data I really needed to complete a task or to know something, I move that into Things. The mail just stays in an archive.

    The point is to make the mail app NOT be where you think about things. It's where you receive info, and then do something with the info. Save the mail for reference, just in case, but otherwise, you DO stuff elsewhere.

    Make sense?
  • Chris, as an occasional correspondent, my suggestion would be to add a keyword or two that you tell people about and use Gmail's filters to file them. So for me, you can add "crackpot" and I'll send my ideas to you with that word in the subject. All my ideas will be filed under "crackpot". Perfect, no?

    Sneakemail.com has the advantage that each address can be turned off or deleted if you find yourself spammed to death. I use Sneakemail for all forms and memberships, at least until I'm sure the company won't sell my email into spam slavery.

    /r
  • Thanks Chris.

    I have experimented a bit more, and I think I have found my problem. I was misunderstanding what "archive" meant. In GMail, it seems that "archive" just means "do not show in inbox". This is very different from what (for example) Outlook means by "archive". Having been very frustrated by Outlook's approach to archiving (which makes archived email much harder to access) in the past, I had never clicked that button in GMail.

    A clarification of your article might be to elaborate on your section on processing incoming mail. How/when do you archive your email. Do you have a rule which archives everytyhing automatically to keep your inbox empty? Do you do it manually after you have labelled an email as "Family/Home", "Blogging" etc.? Do you use some other approach? I found it puzzling that you include the archive button in "You’ll Need", but then never mention it again.

    As an aside, what do you do about incoming email which does not have an obvious associated action - such as discussion mailing lists, automated status updates or subscriber newsletters?
  • "As an aside, what do you do about incoming email which does not have an obvious associated action - such as discussion mailing lists, automated status updates or subscriber newsletters?"

    What I do is filter them by server of origin and file by subject. Looking at Gmail "folders" you'll see the number of undread messages, and you'll look when you're in the mood to read about each interest, e.g., design, aero, exercise or Cubs.

    /r
  • heh, "undread" messages! I meant "unread", but non-spam which is often called "ham" could be in the "undread" category :)
  • E.T.Cook
    You aren't that specific about how you transfer the messages and "mail" tasks to Things if you use Gmail. If you use mail, I know you can drag the message into a context or project, but how do you integrate gmail into the fold with Things?
  • Thanks for the post. A couple of other points to consider to not to give out your primary email address to everyone. And if you work for a company ask management to constantly remind everyone not to "Send to all" unless it's truly necessary.
  • @E.T. - I don't, exactly. I do some copy/paste if I need details, but otherwise, I just transfer it up and over. Portage style.

    @Tashjian - good point about not sending to all. Phew.
  • es tu vins vina vini!
  • Karen
    Re: Frank Carver's comment 3/22.
    "Having been very frustrated by Outlook’s approach to archiving (which makes archived email much harder to access) in the past, I had never clicked that button in GMail."

    If there's anyone out there who still hasn't figured this out, nevernevernever let Outlook auto-archive your e-mail. If you want to archive messages (say, your employer's IT department has a limit on how much you can store in your Mailbox), create a personal fold (.pst) and manually drag & drop to it.

    That's not always efficient, but at least you'll be able to find what you archived--and if you can't, what's the point? This works best if you collect all messages related to a project in one folder (as suggested in Chris's article) and then move the folder to the archive after the project is complete. Manually. (Did I say that already?)

    OK, some would say the better approach might be to skip Outlook in the first place (although I like it better than most Microsoft products), but if you're using it this is the way to go.
  • I just got to ZERO! Thanks for the inspiration. Now, let's see if I can keep it there.
  • I started today and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Here's my method:

    Open Outlook every two hours.
    Process emails:
    -Tasks/Projects go into TaskCoach (which now supports dragging and dropping an email to create a new task)
    -FYIs, Thank You's, most CC:s get read and deleted
    -Anything I TRULY think I might need later for CYA or for reference gets archived in a big archive folder that I'll search when needed using Copernic.
    -Delete everything else with extreme prejudice

    I let my coworkers and boss know what I was doing and why so they could understand why I wasn't treating Outlook like an IM client as our team has done in the past. So far so good!
  • I'm using Gmail and Things too. They work great together, especially with the following tips:

    Each item in gmail has a unique address; just choose the New Window link in the top right hand corner. You can drag any link to Things and it will create a new To Do item with a direct link to the email in the Notes section.

    If you're using Firefox, the add-on QuoteURLText will copy any text you select and the url with one click, ready for pasting into Things.

    The only problem at the moment is that Things doesn't recognise https (encrypted connection) links and make them clickable. I only use Gmail encrypted, so I have to select any url and choose "Make Link" in the context menu. Hopefully this will be fixed in coming versions.
  • Great to see yet another one freed from the tyranny of E-Mail herding and procrastinating! :)

    I've been an avid 'inbox zero' practitioner for a long time myself without knowing it. I've recently come to know about David Allen and Merlin Mann and their great contributions to Getting Things Done.

    I guess what makes my 'methodology' a bit different is that I do not label or differentiate my mails - and I use my inbox as a list of my current to-dos. I find it much more efficient for me personally.

    I pulled off an attempt to describe what I do to get things done on my blog not so terribly long ago:
    http://stopmebeforeiblogagain.com/are-we-gettin...

    With the advent of GMail, handling my mail has gotten ridiculously easy. Just achive and forget - search when needed. I cannot imagining going back to herding my mail ever again.

    I also recommend the GMail BlackBerry app for getting things done when on the move:
    http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/mobi...

    On another note to fellow Europeans, remember to verify that your devices have been successfully adjusted +1 hours after midnight today, as Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends. ;)
  • great article
  • tasutavideod.kilu.de
  • Great post, Chris, and congratulations. Alot of this is about knowing yourself, and taking control!

    One of the things that helps me the most is to go into the inbox with the intention of SORTING frather than WORKING. If anything requires action, I have an Action A folder (for the important stuff)and and Action B folder (for the less important stuff.) This is ONLY where I keep it. Like you, I set a diary for anything that is time sensitive... but the cool thing is now I know exactly where to go to get it. You can flag things to denote family, blog ideas, etc., and search and sort them that way too.

    Then, this all comes together when we plan our days, once a day. That's when we check our diaries, the Action folders, the phone calls we must return, the meetings, etc... This was featured in my 12 Steps that went 'round the world in February 2007, and alot of folks thought it worked well.
  • Great post, thanks Chris. I tag every single incoming email, and then I just leave them be. If there's something I need to attend to later the same day, I mark those un-read. If there are others that I want to get back to, but can't do that same day, I put a star on them. By having the most important, most urgent email marked as *unread*, they show up at the bottom right corner, in the Firefox addon Gmail Manager. It's a godsend.
    There they sit and gently work their *unread* charm in my peripheral vision, until I've worked up enough guilt to go ahead and just do it. Answer. Reply. Or somesuch.
  • Great post and comments. I guess I don't get the reason for the additional step of using Things. I've been using Outlook for years and recently moved to Thunderbird but don't like it much better. I think I'll try Gmail and just use a combination of labels, the archive button and star items that need action.
  • I'm interested in finding out if your workflow has improved over the past year. I've been migrating away from email as much as possible and your article was an impetus for me to purchase Things and give it a try.

    I used Things for a few weeks and was loving it, but like you said, you have to focus on using it. After a while, e-mails would pour in and I would have to sort through every one to delete or archive. I began feeling overwhelmed with email, client requests and projects. I personally hate email now and would like to never have to use it again, but there is always the problem of clients requiring it.
  • I posted a similar post on my blog a while ago: doing something RAD with e-mail:
    http://gelderman.org/blog/2008/03/28/doing-some... with more links to inbox-zero articles.
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