(Part 1: Email Overload: Clear your inbox in a few easy steps)
(Part 2: Email Overload: How are we doing so far?)
(Part 3: Did I actually get to Inbox Zero?)
(Part 4: Cleaning up old emails, is it worth it?)
Background: I have been trying to clear my inbox manually for the last few weeks in order to get a better feel for the need for email productivity and email overload tools. I also wanted to get my Outlook file down from a gigantic 15 G to something more manageable for me and digestible by Outlook.
My current stats:
- Outlook pst file: 15 G -> 6 G -> 5.8 G -> 2.9 G -> 2.85 G (I am stagnating a little on the cleanup of old stuff)
- Inbox items: 0 (Still holding up at Inbox Zero)
I have now been at it for about 8 weeks comfortably maintaining Inbox Zero. Here are the main benefits I am experiencing:
- a feeling of comfort: I don’t worry any more about the volume of email coming in, or about forgetting or missing one. With the system I have in place, I know that I will get to my Inbox at least daily, and clear it within a few minutes. I am not worried about glancing an email on my Blackberry and leaving it in my inbox, since I know I will get to it later and handle it. There is no reason for me to resort to leaving items purposely unread as reminders to get to them later.
- I’m on top of things: I review my email TODO list periodically, as well as my task list (the task list is a superset, that includes tasks that aren’t only related to emails received or sent). I can determine quickly what needs to be done soon, and I schedule and get it done. Some argue ‘but you just changed where your TODOs are, from your Inbox to another location‘. This is simply not true. Your TODOs are now very well-defined and easily found. They encompass the body of the real work that you have to do. They are much easier to manage this way and, most importantly, with less stress.
- Great tool ideas: I will have to remain a little cagey here, but this whole exercise has given me some awesome ideas for email productivity tools. We are spec’ing and coding, so you’ll just have to wait a little bit for more details.
There are some benefits that I expected but have not really experienced:
- No real difference in Outlook search but I am using Windows 7 with Outlook 2007 and I have applied a trick for lightning fast search of emails.
- Faster and more robust Outlook with the smaller pst file: if it is faster it is so far imperceptible to me. As for more robust, my Outlook tends to find add-ons disagreeable, but doesn’t seem to mind large pst files.
I look forward to hearing about your experiences on maintaining Inbox Zero and your email productivity tips and tricks.
References and similar articles on Email Security Matters:
