About inbox zero

[MariesCondo]

Everyday I end the day with no unread emails. I either deal with an email immediately so it requires no further action or I put what needs to be done on my to do list for the day I will deal with it. I have worked full time in a demanding job for 15 years and this is how I have always worked. I have the same approach to my personal emails.

A friend has told me this is odd. Is it? I don’t understand what other way there is to function! 😆

None unread, it would do my head in to have unread mail. I use 4 Ds to deal with email:
Delete
Diary
Delegate
Deal with.

Helps me to keep it manageable.

I can’t understand the people who are digging at you for being some sort of show-off. I’m about to get ready for bed and I currently don’t have a single unread email or any emails which need dealing with. I read and replied to / filed / deleted them throughout the day. do it every single day or I’d soon be drowning in them. I have insomnia and I’d end up lying awake bugged by all the things I’d need to deal with in the morning. I’m not even a hugely organised, punctual person!

Note to self: never mention on MN that you a) are marginally good at something or b) own nice things, or it'll be a Bitter Betty pile-on. Jesus Christ, guys. God forbid women like themselves for two seconds.

@ICouldHaveCheckedFirst

Those who want to get to inbox zero should take a look at David Allen and his Getting Things Done blog/company/book.

I was going to post this myself but was beaten to it!

Several years ago, there was a thread on MN called Getting Things Done. This referred to the book and it pre-dated the term "inbox to zero". Inbox to zero is what people seem to call it nowadays. When I saw the thread title, I was immediately reminded of the old thread.

1. Inbox
2. Tasks not started
3. Ongoing tasks
4. Completed tasks
5. Archive

-. Deleted items folder

Something along the lines of the above structure. Then you can triage items from folder no.1 into folders 2-5 and so on.

@chunderwunder

'Hi there! I'm absolutely fabulous at task management and would like to disingenuously point out that I can't understand why everyone else isn't. I'll even add a fun emoji to show that I'm not bragging! Tra la la!'

@chunderwunder........ If this is a serious comment, and not meant to be a bit of fun, then it is frankly mean, childish, arrogant, and not at all clever. If you can't say anything meaningful or constructive, then just don't post - it's not difficult.

This is what I do. I don’t know anyone else who works this way though. I can’t imagine working any other way, I’d get too confused.

I have 11245 unread emails. Yes you read that right!

I have over 10,000 emails, but I can just mark them all read at once if I want

@Beesinthegarden

I have 11245 unread emails. Yes you read that right!

Ooo you've got just a few more than me!

Zero shits given here

Guessing we could never be friends?

Joking aside, I’m actually a PA and very organised at work. I don’t have a zero inbox though as I use my inbox as a to do list. Delete anything I’ve read and needs no action, file info emails and put ones with actions back to unread. I only delete / file them when actually dealt with.

@Beesinthegarden

I have 11245 unread emails. Yes you read that right!

I win, see above 🤣

@HouseyHouse21

I operate an inbox zero policy, it helps me feel on top of things and takes no extra time once it becomes a habit.

That really depends how many emails you get a day and what else you do! Friday is my 'catching up on emails' day ... the rest of the week I can just about respond to urgent emails unless I want to work all evening.

@BoredZelda

What if you delete something by mistake?

That’s what the delete items folder is for.

But if you have hundreds of unread emails, you aren’t dealing with it, so what difference does it make of you delete it?

My mailbox is empty. I take time at the end of a working week to focus on any that haven’t been dealt with. If I didn’t have time to deal with emails, I’d be speaking to my boss about my workload.

My husband is an IT manager. I suppose all of you with thousands of unread emails would be happy if he just ignored your request to fix the vitally important IT issue you have.

I don’t ignore anyone’s requests. I don’t need to open every email to know what’s in it - that’s what Subject headers and Previews are for.

I manage my workload by not spending extra time cataloguing or deleting emails. Not doing something takes less time than doing something.

Works for me. May not work for you. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong or bad.

These auto delete and auto file rules make me twitch. I'm a lawyer and missing an email could mean a negligence claim against me. So I read everything and manually file it once it is dealt with.

I'm not quite sure how we got to the point where so many jobs are mostly dealing with email. It was supposed to be a useful tool, not a scourge.

[quote Anonymous48]@MasterBeth

"I never have any unread emails. If it's a junk email I'll delete without reading. If it's something else I'll open it and either deal with it then or save it for later. What if you miss something urgent and time sensitive?"

"What if you delete something by mistake?"

I'm not sure what you mean. How would I delete something by mistake? The only emails I ever delete are junk emails. I keep everything else.[/quote]
You could hit the wrong key, you could misread an email, you could not yet know how important something will be… Congratulations, though, if you are infallible.

You'd hate me. I currently have 47086 unread emails in my inbox. I have ADHD and find emails impossible to keep on top of so my system is to use the search function and keep an eye out for the important ones. Seems to work ok. I do the same at work.

My husband is like you and usually has a zero inbox at the end of most days unless it's something he hasn't managed to finish. I would love it but I have no idea how anyone achieves it, it seems impossible to me.

@beigebrownblue

I have four different email accounts.

One way of organising things

1. School
2. Shopping
3. Appeal (legal and complaints)
4. Health

I'm not able to do paid work at the moment but with this method I prioritise things that are crucial to organising.
For example during term time I would check school email but not in holidays.

If I don't have any legal matters or health matters going on then these become less important.

Shoppiing for deliveries especially useful in lockdowns and when working from home.

All four have junk mail coming through which I ignore.

Ooo I like that idea. I might try that one.

It’s about doing your job, which includes answering the emails people send you

Not always. I don’t need to answer all e-mails. In my job if my target for finishing was having dealt with all e-mails I’d be missing a trick. I need to think and improve things, not just respond to what other people want me to do. I know my priorities better than other people do.

Interested in the flagging etc. I don’t really do that. Just mark as unread if I need to follow up. I suspect I have too many sub-folders and waste time there to satisfy my need to have a smaller inbox for headspace, but i think that’s probably wasting my time

I clear everything too OP 🎉

Work I am pretty much inbox zero.

Personally I have over 18k unread.

I try and keep my Inbox clean - my main email is both work/personal, as PPs you can usually tell whether to read (or Marka s Read) by the Header and email address.

What does need more of my attention is the many Folders and Sub-folders that represent years of read emails, I have no idea how many 1000's there are.