March 29, 2024

I’m Writing a Book. from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.

My life is a mess, mainly because my email is a mess.  I’ve reached a critical point with email at which I just can’t keep up.  I can’t remember what I’ve read.  I can’t remember where the last email I last answered is.  I’ve lost the plot.

I’m now looking for the plot at the site Inboxzero.com.  Because I don’t have time to answer all of my emails, I also don’t have time to watch the video I’ve posted above in its entirety, nor do I have time to watch the previous video created by the same guy in which he first made famous his inbox zero plan.

What I have done is to try to tackle this in my own way.  Today I moved about 50,000 emails to a folder labeled “old.”  I created labels for various types of emails.  I’ve crafted a plan.

My plan is that I will try to end each day with nothing left in my inbox.  If I don’t need it, I’ll delete it.  When I’ve answered it, I’ll move it to a folder.  It’s a simple plan.  I hope it works to help me keep up with where I’ve been and how far I have left to go.

Today is my first day of attempting to get down to zero.  I thought I was there at one point, but when I answered and moved the last student email and went back to look at my lovely empty inbox, I had three new campus spams…I mean announcements.

Sigh.

3 thoughts on “Inbox Zero

  1. LOL!! Missie and I are always threatening to block certain certain campus emails from certain campus offices…or tag the individuals from whom those emails come as “spammers”!! Funny that we’re not the only ones who feel this way 🙂

  2. Thanks, George! And Patti, yes, I’m going to start taking pleasure in deleting some people’s emails unread…like popping bubbles.

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