Inbox Zero

The Process

In order to get to Inbox Zero, you need to systematically process each email in your inbox. The important part is that you deal with every single email in your inbox. There are several ways you can do this such as scanning and acting on the most important emails first, or going through them in chronological order, etc. My personal preference is to go through them from the top down.

There are three basic responses you take to each email:

Dismiss

If the email is not important, archive it. I never recommend deleting emails, as they take up so little space and you never know when you might need to refer back to them.

Act

If the email requires action that can be completed within two minutes, do it immediately. If the action will take longer than that, proceed to the next response.

Defer

If the email requires action, but the action will take longer than two minutes, defer it. This means moving it to a task list or calendar so that you can come back to it later.

The Schedule

The other key to Inbox Zero is to regularly schedule time to process your emails. While it's really tempting to check your email often, or even to keep your inbox open at all times, I strongly recommend against this. Being constantly distracted by emails has a massive impact on your productivity and focus.

In order to maximize your potential for deep work (a term coined by Cal Newport in his book of the same title), I recommend checking your email only 2-3 times per day. Each time you check your email, you should try to get it to Inbox Zero. For most people, this should take less than 30 minutes per day.

The best times to check your email are at the peripheries of your day, when you have the least chance of it interrupting other work. My suggestions are:

1. First thing after you arrive in the morning.

2. (optional) Just before or after lunch. If you don't get many emails, you should skip this one.

3. The last thing before you leave for the day.

Dismiss

When you receive an email that requires no response or action from you, you archive it. I strongly recommend archiving above deleting, as you can always search for archived emails later if you need to refer back to them.

Every email that lands in your inbox should be important to you. In other words, it should add some value to your life or work. If it does not, you need to unsubscribe from that email source.

In some cases you may regularly receive emails that have some value for future reference, but you don't usually need to read them, you can set up a filter in Gmail to automatically tag them, mark them read, and archive them. This way, they will not clutter your inbox, but you can still refer to them later if needed.

Act

If the email requires action, such as a response or doing a task, consider how long it will take to complete the action. If the action will take less than two minutes, do it immediately. If it will take longer, move on to the "Defer" step.

Defer

If the email requires action, but the action will take longer than two minutes, you should defer it. This means intentionally setting it aside to be dealt with later. The idea is that you focus on what you can clear out quickly, and then come back to larger tasks when you have more time to devote to them.

It's important to note that it is usually not a good idea to use your inbox as a to-do list for larger tasks. Instead, you should transfer the task to a separate task list. Allowing your inbox to become cluttered with "things I will take care of later" will lead you down a path of never getting to Inbox Zero.

Use the Snooze Feature

On occasion, when a task will take less than two minutes to complete, but it's not appropriate to do it right now, you can use the snooze feature in Gmail. This allows you to temporarily remove the email from your inbox and have it reappear at a later time when you're ready to deal with it. This is particularly useful for emails that require a response, but you are waiting for more information.

Leverage Gmail Tags and Filters

Email filters can be a powerful tool for automatically removing emails from your inbox that you don't need to see immediately. For example, you can create a filter that automatically tags emails from certain senders or with specific keywords, and then archive them. This way, they won't clutter your inbox, but you can still refer to them later if needed.

What if I have hundreds or thousands of emails to process?

Especially at the start of this process, you might find that you have a massive backlog of emails in your inbox, and it seems impossible to get through them all. In this case, the easiest course of action is to do the following:

1. Scan through your most recent emails and either snooze, tag, or act on the ones that demand action

2. Try to think of any important emails that you know are in there somewhere, and search for them to tag or act on them

3. Draw a line in the sand. Select all the emails in your inbox and archive them. This will clear your inbox, and you can start caring today. The fact of the matter is that with your old habits, you probably weren't going to get to those emails anyway. And, archiving has the benefit of not deleting them, so you can still search for them later if needed.