Wed 1 Nov 2006
managing the weight of your inbox
Posted by David under philosophizing, what I did today
[3] Comments
Do you remember my dad’s theory about weight management that I cited in this post?
“I don’t care how much you weigh, but you should weigh that amount every year.â€
I realized last night that I use the exact same philosophy to trying to manage my inbox. I was well aware that I had a conscious approach, but I didn’t realize that it’s just about exactly the same idea:
“I don’t care how big my inbox is, but it should be that size every day.”
Ok, I gotta work on the wording… but, yeah, for me the number is 38, because that’s how many I can see on the screen of my mail program at one time. After announcing HoosierNet‘s demise on July 20, my inbox got out of control. Sunday night, I whittled it down from about 800 to 38. It’s remarkable how much more “together” I feel having done that. I just took care of a few emails to get it back under 38, and along with it came a good send of getting things done promptly! I think that big fat inbox was weighing on my psyche… But, look! I’ve lost weight!! Can you tell?? :)
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[…] I spent hours taming my inbox. As I discussed last November, I like to have 38 or fewer emails in my inbox at any given moment (because I can fit 37 on one […]
Your inbox should be zero. Unless you’re using GMail in which case it doesn’t matter.
The inbox is a place for stuff to come before it’s taken care of. So, if it’s in there, it, by definition, needs taken care of. You should either:
– delete it
– file it
– turn it into a to-do (somewhere BESIDES your inbox)
The only things I keep in my inbox are those that are temporary that I know I will need in the next couple of days, but will delete or file immediately after.
So, if you think staring at 38 mails is great, imagine the sheer fucking exuberance that comes with looking at an empty inbox. It’s somewhat similar to finally paying off a credit card.
Actually, I don’t care how many emails you have. I just wanted to share a simple something that works for me. And to brag.
(This treatment of inboxes was brought to you by Getting Things Done and 43 Folders.)
So, my reaction to this is basically: I agree, if it’s in my inbox, it needs taken care of. So, I either delete it or file it. But, I’ve never come up with a todo list that worked as well as my inbox. So, my inbox is really my first-string todo list as well. Some emails turn into longer term projects, and then they become todo’s on my beloved Palm, but the Palm Todo doesn’t grab my attention the way my inbox does. So, after much experimentation, this system seems to work best for me.
But I’m glad to know that others care as deeply about this kind of thing as I do. And great to see you here, Pete!