Several weeks back, I listened to a vodcast/podcast/video/whatever of a Merlin Mann lecture on Inbox Zero. I guess the point is to have your e-mail inbox empty 10 minutes after you open it. I tried it; and I like it.
I don't follow it to the letter, though. For instance, we're told to have only one archive for saved e-mail messages. Nope; I need more. I do try it keep it simple, but, as an e-mail message archiver, I have needs.
The one hurdle I have yet to overcome are the short-term messages. I get messages that are important for, maybe, two weeks and then can be tossed. There isn't really a place for those in my system. Perhaps I should create a folder called "2 weeks" for those messages. Are there any problems a blog cannot solve?
But, overall, it's refreshing to me to have an empty e-mail inbox. I feel like there is less hanging over me.
Furthermore, I've been more free with my e-mail delete button. That's nice. So often, I don't really need an e-mail message but don't want to keep it either. Now, too bad. DELETE! Sorry, but that one guy said to.
One other note on this. During the lecture, he told us to close our e-mail except for, perhaps, 10 minutes an hour. You waste time when you check e-mail as it arrives. It's better to blow through it all at once and be done with it for an hour. This also solves the problem of people expecting you to reply instantly. They only expect you to reply instantly if you let them expect you to reply instantly. If you stop replying instantly, they'll no longer expect it. Theoretically. Having your e-mail closed 5/6 of the time forces you to not reply instantly. There is one small problem with that.
I'm the guy who expects instant replies to e-mail messages. Oops.
Anyway, check out Inbox Zero.
And have a good day!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
The whole concept of not waiting for email to arrive is something that I completely agree with. I think that people use email as an excuse for not doing the real work they're supposed to be doing.
I also agree with the folders issue that you have. I subscribe to several mailing lists (you know, those old, antiquated non-threaded discussions that take place via email) and I usually use folders to organize the messages that I receive from them. However, as a user of gmail, I have no folders!! Only labels. Gmail lumps everything into your inbox and expects you to use labels and "archive" move items out of your inbox. With this kind of system, the ability to remove items from your inbox is really impossible. It's one of the biggest complaints I have about gmail. Of course, the googletards would have you believe that this is the way that people want to work and that they don't want folders and that folders are bad for you and are high in fat and cholesterol. I believe that they even lay out their argument for you.
Of course, their arguments are invalid if you don't use their web interface exclusively. Modern email clients do most if not all of the things they claim can't be done with folders. Their argument is really about reasons why you should use their web interface and not a traditional mail client with real mail related protocols (POP & IMAP).
Yowza!
Now, I'm as anti-New Age as they come, but this article about David Allen is related to your point of trying to minimize the noise.
Great! You forced me to actually try Gmail. Now I have a work e-mail, school e-mail, and 4 personal e-mail accounts. On the bright side, you can pretty much type anything you want for an e-mail address and you'll probably hit at least one of my e-mail accounts.
You're right. Ideally, Gmail would give us folders and "labels." Give us the option. (And the option to not have google attach our names to our google searches while we're logged in.) In my opinion, Gmail works with Inbox Zero in that you can archive your messages and have zero in your inbox. But you can't do the "verbs." You can tag them with verbs, but it is not the same thing.
I agree with you about their arguments for labels. Labels can be useful, and I like tags in general, but their arguments reek of "let's make our limitations seem like a positive."
I TOTALLY disagree with your e-mail as an excuse bit. Some of us use e-mail efficiently. In the web 2.0 world, we use BLOGS to avoid the work we're supposed to be doing. Or am I just a trend setter?
I wasn't saying that the use of email isn't efficient or total excuse. However, what I hear from co-workers is, "Oh, I haven't done that yet. I was checking email."
Perhaps its just the people I've worked with. But, it is something that I get quite frequently.
I generally try not to read blogs that are not work related during work hours (present blog excluded). Does that make ME a trend setter?
BTW - I like the cut of your jib!
Sorry for the late reply. I was reading e-mail.
Present blog excluded? We're discussing work-place efficiency. How is that not work related?
But, yes, you are a trend setter.
Sorry I haven't gotten back you to sooner, but I was wasting precious time with the busy-work of making sure that my non-work inbox had zero messages in it.
Post a Comment