[GTO]

What's your strategy for inbox zero?

Inbox Zero is a rigorous approach to email management aimed at keeping the inbox empty -- or almost empty -- at all times.

Source

I typically hit Inbox Zero once a day minimum. What's your approach to email management? Sharing some tips from my end.

• The Archive button - Out of sight, out of mind. Once I'm done with an email, I hit the archive button. This also helps to retain in the inbox only those emails that need my attention. No unwanted clutter.

• Morning & evening approach. I usually finish all my emails first thing in the morning, and last thing before I wrap up for the day. I'll check the inbox once or twice a day for something urgent needing my attention, but that's it.

• If I don't need to reply, I don't. Archive. Saves me & the recipient time.

• Email instead of Facebook. I'm one of the few who finds Facebook boring. If I feel like I need a break from something I'm in the middle of, I'll quickly reply to some emails and then get back to whatever I was doing. More interesting to me than FB, and productive too.

It amazes me how cluttered the inboxes of some people are. Glanced at a sibling's inbox yesterday and it showed over 1,000 unread emails .

Here's my inbox from earlier this evening

[Chethan B G]

Select all + Mark as read : does the trick for me. Just kidding!

I check my mails on multiple devices. I have selected5 line view on my mobile. Therefore, I don't have to open most of the mails. I usually open only long mails or the ones I need to reply.

My mail box is usually cluttered. I am okay with it.

[Chetan_Rao]

I just can't live with unread emails. Thankfully Exchange lets one create really detailed rules to move stuff to relevant folders so my inbox is usually under control. I let Exchange do my sorting for me, instead of doing it manually.

A few basic email habits that work for me:

1. Never respond to emails you're only CCed on: One rule I've adopted over the years is NEVER to reply to an email that isn't addressed to me directly (check if I'm in 'To'). There are plenty of instances where we're tempted to respond to an email we're only CCed on (so technically aren't required to respond), and I've religiously trained myself away from that instinct. To someone who gets a load of emails per day, this can save a good chunk of time.

2. Archive and clean up: I archive everything I don't need to use actively, and clean up every 6 months. Once a year, I delete everything I'll never need. This basically means I'll keep emails with important paperwork, other critical details and anything else I may need as evidence for a future thread (create a PST Archive and store offline). Everything else just goes to junk (esp. conversations that aren't likely to ever be reopened). My mailbox never goes beyond 10 GB (I get loads of heavy attachments), I have colleagues with mailbox 5-10 times that size.

3. Email forwarding: I'm very particular about not becoming an email addict, esp. during my off hours/days. I use email forwarding to ensure someone available in my team responds to any CRITICAL stuff while I'm unavailable, and have standing instructions to be called only if the first/second line can't resolve something effectively. This both helps me delegate effectively instead of trying to do everything myself, and my team getting a sense of responsibility. I also get to enjoy my time off without worrying if work's getting done.

[Jaggu]

Hmm interesting topic, i have multiple official id's and personal id's. Usually take about 30 mts to clear the back log in the morning, i respond when i am at the machine or mobile device as needed during work hours. After office hours only critical emails are responded and that too if i check or is brought to my notice, rest all will have to wait till next official working hour. I am little OCD'ed also, i clear all my emails including junk and delete the deleted folders by the time i am done with mails.

Most people keep mails unread to go back to it, which practically never happens and is one of the worst email habit one can have, especially if your email volumes are high. Finish replying those simple ones on time... and important ones that need follow up, ensure you add reminder flags.

In a business you cannot have the liberty of having 0 mail inbox these days, emails are used for anything to everything, and are referenced, audited and tracked. A good app like Outlook or Mail (mac) and setting up rule's is the only workable solution i have found till now to manage this.

At work i have rule's configured for certain email domains, common/group email id's and for some important person's, so that they are automatically brought to my notice. Rest are responded on second priority but within EOD or next day morning.

[Rajeevraj]

I typically never reach Inbox Zero, but cannot stand the sight of unread emails.

In my office email, I do a clean up once a week. Delete unwanted ones, archive to personal folders, retain the few where I have some action pending. So typically reduce to 20-30 emails in Inbox.

In my personal gmail account, I don't delete/archive, but never have unread emails. All junk that comes in is deleted and other mails are read/marked read.

Sunday mornings are challenging, that's when the scores of emails(~100 in my case) from Team Bhp comes in-Weekly subscription emails . Many of it I have been too lazy to go unsubscribe and the rest of it, I would have already read since I am regular on the forum. So first activity on a Sunday morning is to clean that up.

I also have another personal account. I neglected it for some time and it became unmanageable. I have a simple solution for that- I don't look at it any more.

[iamahunter]

A very good and important topic.

Now a days, the inbox gets full with all the advertising and marketing mails rather than useful ones.

I have segregated my mail box as such..


Labels such as Bills, Finances and Work are futher divided.

eg: Finance can be divided into MF Investments, Bank Statements, Credit card statements and so on.
Bills have Electricity, Mobile, Flipkart reciepts, etc..

Makes like much better and easier.

Yes I have a folder which says Useless(mainly for select all, DELETE)
and still I have some 400+ mails in my inbox.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

My mailbox never goes beyond 10 GB (I get loads of heavy attachments), I have colleagues with mailbox 5-10 times that size.

Why bother with Outlook & local PST files? I used to do that earlier and it was a headache to manage backups etc. Just move to the cloud. I've moved my work emails to gmail; Microsoft has outlook for you .

Originally Posted by Jaggu

I am little OCD'ed also, i clear all my emails including junk and delete the deleted folders by the time i am done with mails.

Likewise! I get to the junk folder before my inbox (just in case there are important emails there).

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

I also have another personal account. I neglected it for some time and it became unmanageable. I have a simple solution for that- I don't look at it any more.

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Now a days, the inbox gets full with all the advertising and marketing mails rather than useful ones.

Your best defence against spam is to either 'block' the sender or set a filter to delete that sender's emails. I meticulously block all spam senders.

[pratyush6]

Reading an email first thing in the morning is a bad, bad habit. It just runs you down. I avoid it like a plague.

But I absolutely hate cluttered email. Oh Google, I read my emails, that are important, and then simply , Select All + Delete Unread. I am amazed at how people are comfortable with thousands of unread emails. Probably I have OCD for this

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by GTO

Why bother with Outlook & local PST files? I used to do that earlier and it was a headache to manage backups etc. Just move to the cloud. I've moved my work emails to gmail; Microsoft has outlook for you .

Office does not allow using public cloud solutions (I can't even sync my OneNote account across devices anymore), but we do have our own in-house private cloud, accessible outside over VPN.

Local PSTs are from years ago, I don't think my current corp setup even allows that anymore. Outlook is great until it ain't, like most Microsoft products. They just act cranky and go boom someday, unannounced, usually when one needs them most.

[Jaguar]

I don't delete or archive email but don't keep anything unread as well. I too use Exchange for email sorting and many system generated work mails go directly to their respective folders.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

1. Never respond to emails you're only CCed on:

Hardly works since many people don't know whom to keep in To and whom to CC. They just forward or reply-all without changing the To/CC list.

[vinjosep]

Originally Posted by GTO

What's your strategy for inbox zero?

Multiple email accounts for different target requirements. With the advent of mobile internet, managing them within the same smartphone is easy peasy.

E.g.:

1 account for all subscriptions. Have noticed how many a times, registering in a portal results in a deluge of emails (cleartrip, expedia etc as examples).

1 account for purely private transactions. This email ID is shared with only select audience. Used for bank accounts etc. This is diligently checked and cleaned every few hours on the mobile. Extremely strong password for this email.

1 for social networking (not limited to FB). Had been part of a google group for owners of a apartment complex. I got 3000 emails in the inbox within a month!! Needless to say, this is scanned only once in a while, when I'm really in need of a change.

1 account for shady subscriptions (shady as in "register you email for a freebie" etc, where I don't trust the source)

The advantage with the above is that I can segregate important emails right at the source. Has worked good for me so far.

Of course, all the above relates to personal email.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Hardly works since many people don't know whom to keep in To and whom to CC. They just forward or reply-all without changing the To/CC list.

Causes pain but is a necessary evil, esp. for people handling heavy email traffic. Why should I be forced to read through (potentially) hundreds of emails I'm not required to address, just because the sender can't get his/her target audience sorted?

It won't/didn't work perfectly from day one, but everyone I work with now knows they won't get a response from me unless I'm in the 'To' field. I also hold up my end of the bargain, by always responding to anything addressed to me within a reasonable/agreed upon time-frame.

[asingh1977]

What I have been doing for the past 15 years:

1. Create a PST for Outlook.
2. I do not keep any mail alert active. I just check the box periodically or unless someone manually tells me a mail has come my way for a response. This avoids a disturbance and break in the thought process.
3. Upon reading I move the mail to the PST based on project or name or organization (HR / ADMIN / Payroll).
4. I only keep 5-6 mails in the inbox (read) and same with the sent section.
5. I auto-rule people after I get used to their messages. Like an HR representative, or an ADMIN person.
6. Mails which I have replied to, I delete them from the INBOX.
7. Mails on which I receive a reply to I remove them from the SENT and the prior one from the INBOX. No point keeping multiple copies of the mail, when the chain has it all.
8. I keep mail threading OFF, since I do not want the mail client to sort for me.

My company does not allow Outlook to be mapped to Gmail or an external cloud service.

[phamilyman]

I do what GTO does. And I have a gmail app script which marks all the pesky marketing / forum groups auto-read after 3 days. That keeps the unread gmail alert on my app from showing thousands of unread emails in the app notification count! (yes I have an OCD for that as well!!)

[GTO]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

Reading an email first thing in the morning is a bad, bad habit. It just runs you down. I avoid it like a plague.

Why do you say that? I start early and usually complete my emails before anyone else even arrives at work. Takes me about 30 minutes in the morning (on an average).

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Outlook is great until it ain't, like most Microsoft products. They just act cranky and go boom someday, unannounced, usually when one needs them most.

Originally Posted by vinjosep

Have noticed how many a times, registering in a portal results in a deluge of emails (cleartrip, expedia etc as examples).

Had been part of a google group for owners of a apartment complex. I got 3000 emails in the inbox within a month!!

Anyone who spams my inbox gets a filter to take them to the trash can. This greatly helps keep my inbox filled with only important emails.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

but everyone I work with now knows they won't get a response from me unless I'm in the 'To' field.

Nice strategy. But still, you have to read them no? There could be an important point you want to add to the discussion between two others.

Originally Posted by asingh1977

I do not keep any mail alert active.

Likewise! No notifications or alerts for email. If something is critical, they'll call anyway.

Mails which I have replied to, I delete them from the INBOX.

I never delete. Instead, I use gmail's 'archive' function which takes them out of my view, but still keeps them stored (in case I need to refer to them at a later date). Storage is cheap + infinite anyways. Why delete?