4 Tips for Keeping Your Inbox Empty

Keeping an empty inbox is necessary and possible to keep your communication, organization and implementation flowing. Plus it could save you several weeks a year!

There should be nothing in your e-mail inbox.

If you haven’t shouted out “You’re crazy!” and closed the browser yet then allow me to unpack that statement.

One thing we’ve learned running a cloud based animation studio (and life in general) is that communication is hard.

It’s hard enough to clearly explain ideas and edits standing together in the same room…let alone via txts, Skype, phone and worst of all e-mail.

Most e-mail is unclear, unnecessary and unwanted.

Face it; the amount of e-mail streaming in daily and the expectations on you to respond has gotten out of hand.

Here’s a gut-punching, forehead-slapping fact that I recently stumbled over:
10 seconds saved per e-mail can save 30 minutes a day…several weeks a year.

Plus, e-mail tends to be more about conversation and less about action. That makes moving projects forward through e-mail more complicated.

Want more control over your inbox and e-mail? Then read on!

Is an empty inbox necessary?

That’s a little tough to answer, obviously I’m a little biased toward the affirmative. It really depends on the type of work you do, your workload and the expectations of your work environment.

However, poor e-mail habits can make you less effective in communication, organization and implementation. Examples:

• Keeping emails in your inbox like an archive– making you continually have to sort through them to find stuff
• Using your inbox as a to-do list– having to dig through the text of individual e-mails to keep organized and take action
• Letting e-mails pile up–overwhelming you, making “next actions” on projects unclear and hindering follow ups

I’ve seen ‘em and done ’em all.

So if you think any of your communication, organization or implementation is suffering, or those around you think they’re suffering, then an empty inbox is necessary.

Is an empty inbox possible?

It is possible to have an empty inbox, but it does take work. The amazing thing is that, like a flywheel, it takes effort on the front end but less work when the momentum starts.

The key to keeping an empty inbox is to be consistent and persistent in whatever system you apply.

I’d add be ferocious and vigilant, but that may be over the top.

Act like you’re about to go on vacation and must get it done.

I’m a confessed productivity junkie. Many of the great methods out there stem from Getting Things Done (GTD) written by action superhero (to me at least) David Allen. Also check out the magical Merlin Mann and his Inbox Zero and 43 Folders work.

Below are four simple tips and tricks that can make an empty inbox possible.

1. Don’t leave your e-mail on

• Or at least change how often it is checked, once an hour should work depending on the type of work you do.
• Creatives might want to schedule big chunks of production time without interruption (we like to block out 8am to 11am for production and writing).
• Discuss your organization’s culture what’s the expected amount of time for responding to emails and times during the day.
• Since our production correspondence typically flows through 37 Signals’ Basecamp, we can keep e-mail off but check Basecamp sporadically to see if there are updates to the projects we’re working on at that moment.

Bottomline:
Avoid the reactionary workflow that e-mails can create…where everything becomes in your inbox becomes immediate and you spend the day on whatever is on the top of the pile.

2. Choose a “D” for every “E” (e-mail)

• Do–respond to or go do anything that will take 2 minutes or less.
• Delegate–pass it on to someone else but create a prompt to follow-up with them.
• Defer–put it on the backburner, create a project for it to do later.
• Delete–get rid of it, (or archive it…but choose a system that makes it easy to find to find later, i.e. not a bunch of folders).

Bottomline:
Do something…processing and evaluating every e-mail in your inbox needs to be a daily habit.


3. Don’t use the inbox as a To-Do list

• Always have a to-do capture device readily available (software, index cards, post-it, etc.).
• Capture the action/to-do in your system of choice and then delete or archive the e-mail from your inbox.
• Aim for having one to-do list (that’ll be a future blog post).

Bottomline:
E-mail is bad for keeping track of what you need to do. Time is wasted when hunting through your inbox and e-mails for what the next actionable item is.


4. Use your tools effectively

• Archive solution: Highrise (that’s what we use), Archive folder in Gmail, etc. (just avoid an elaborate system…name it wisely and organize by how you’ll easily find it)
• Calendar solution (iCloud, Google Calendar, Outlook)
• Project Tracking (Nozbe, Basecamp)
• Process for sorting (by context, by project, etc.)
• Process for reviewing (beginning/end of the day, start of the week, etc.)

Bottomline:
There are a ton of options out there for each tool and process, keep it simple, stick to what works for you then do it regularly.

Do you want more minutes in the day?

10 seconds saved per e-mail can save 30 minutes a day…several weeks a year.

If you’re like me you’re always trying to eek out a few more minutes in the day for something….family, housework, production, charity, and maybe some “me-time.”

Your inbox subtly steals those seconds away from you.

Okay so that’s a little dramatic, it’s probably not as subversive as that. Actually, I love my job and enjoy checking my e-mail.

But I wouldn’t mind speeding up and organizing the process a little.

How about you?