Get Your Inbox to Zero in Three Steps

January 6, 2020

Everyone I know complains that there is too much to do and not enough time to get everything done. One of the biggest thieves of time is our email inbox. But to be fair, the inbox is not the problem; it’s the inefficient way in which we interact with emails. In the wonderful book, Indistractable, Nir Eyal concludes that most people look at the same email several times before replying, deleting, or, more likely, delaying action until they look at the message yet again. There is a better way, and that is maintaining a zero inbox. If you have, as most people do, hundreds of emails clogging your box, that may seem an impossible objective. But it is absolutely possible, and here is how to do it. I promise that the feeling you will get from a completely empty inbox is exhilarating, allowing you to focus on the priorities at hand and not deal with the lingering guilt in the back of your mind that there are scores of messages waiting for your attention – if only you had the time to reply.

Step 1: The one-touch rule.

There are only three possible actions for every email. Delete (the appropriate response to the vast majority of incoming messages), reply, or defer. If a reply requires more time than you can give it now, do not leave that message in your inbox, but forward it to a place where you can address it at a scheduled time later. I use Evernote for this, and any email that I don’t want to address immediately can be forwarded to Evernote. Each account (free for most users) has an Evernote Upload feature that allows you to quickly send any incoming email to your cloud-based Evernote folder. You can add a word to the subject line so that you can easily find it, and you can quickly set a deadline by just adding an exclamation mark and date in the subject line before you forward the message. This way you can quickly find emails and file attachments, but you don’t spend a single second trying to put them in specific folders, remember where they are, or ask senders to resend messages that you can’t find.

Step 2: Ruthlessly Unsubscribe.

I use two helpful applications for this. Mail Butler provides a one touch automatic unsubscribe button so that you don’t have to waste a minute searching for the tiny, tiny print for the unsubscribe button where most email advertisers bury the option to stop bothering you. For the unrepentant emailers who continue to send you messages even after you have attempted to unsubscribe, I use SaneBox, which will consign those spammers (and any other correspondents who you find tiresome) to a folder you need never see, and direct all future messages from those senders to that particular part of the underworld where they will linger for eternity.

Step 3: Stop the Ping-Pong.

It is emphatically not great service to your colleagues and stakeholders to reply to every email the moment it comes in. Rather, those instant responses send the implicit message, “My time, the person I was talking with, and the project I was working on are all really unimportant, so I’m happy to interrupt my work, dinner, and conversations with my family so I can respond to your message.” The only solution to this is the discipline of replying three times per day – typically at the beginning, middle, and end of the day. And that’s it. During the four hours between each of these email reply sessions, the earth will continue to revolve around the sun and you will be immensely more focused, attentive, productive, and courteous. The challenge I always receive when making this suggestion is that "my boss expects me to reply immediately." Try asking your boss. If you are in a coaching conference, critical meeting, or talking with your family, does your boss really expect you to drop everything and reply? Ask your boss directly, and I will bet you that for the vast majority of messages, the answer is that immediate replies are not necessary. And if it’s really an emergency, the boss can call or text. When you are the boss, it’s essential that you convey to your colleagues that you do expect responses in 24 hours, but not 24 seconds. And what about those incoming calls and text messages? I have “Do Not Disturb” on permanently, allowing only family and colleagues to break through. Everyone else, and that’s the vast majority of spammers and cold-callers, goes to voice mail where, of course, they almost never leave a message.

I believe in great service and quick response to messages, supporting family, friends, colleagues, clients. But most people spend more than four hours a day looking and looking and looking again at emails. That’s not great service for anyone. Follow these three steps and you will experience the joy of an empty email inbox.

Subscribe to receive our blog updates