And why it isn't necessarily something you need to do
Sometime in August an empty email arrived.
It was the weirdest thing. I couldn't open it. It seemingly had no content. When I clicked on it, it just jiggled. I tried everything to get rid of it but it was stuck. It was a little worrying (what if someone needed something?!) and more than a little annoying.
When submitting a ticket to the Help Desk at Fastmail (the service I use to host my business account) I had to include a screenshot. But I didn't want my Inbox entries to be public knowledge - not even in a bland screenshot to my email provider.
And I didn't want to "cheat" and just stuff my Inbox into a holding folder for the screenshot.
So I took on the challenge. Could I empty my Inbox?
It turns out I could. It took me a while, but I got it done.
How to empty your Inbox
The screenshot above is my actual Inbox right now. Well, except for the RETHINK logo. Fastmail give you a little cheer emoji when you reach Inbox Zero. It is a little reward for hard work! I have maintained Inbox Zero for about two weeks now.
How did I do it? Even I cannot believe I got it done!
More than anything else, I made decisions.
I simply set out to do it and would not let myself skip any. I made phone calls to address long-standing questions. I created folders and deleted junk and filed attachments and answered questions. I started with about 70 total.
Here are 4 things you can do to empty your Inbox.
Answer the emails that you can.
This feels self-evident but it might not be a surprise that people procrastinate even simple tasks. Just go ahead and answer simple emails. A co-worker told me years ago that all of business is simply an enormous game of tennis: our job is to lob the ball back over the net so the other person now has something to do. That's a bit cynical, but not altogether inaccurate! Answer the emails you can right away or set aside defined time to do so.
File emails into intelligently-named folders.
In the screenshot to the left, you'll see I have 5 main buckets: Business, Marketing, Learning, Clients, and Personal. They are named with 01, 02, etc. in front of them to ensure my preferred sorting. They are also color-coded. Inside are nested folders of topics and subjects that fall into these buckets. I keep all like things together and everything I need is easy to locate.
I also have one folder called "@Actions & Meetings" which are the links to upcoming or recurring meetings, and any urgent matters that require an email. The other folders are defaults.
Delete emails you do not need.
This is another one that feels self-evident. But many people hold on to every email in a "CYA" (cover your "you-know-what") move in the corporate world. Maybe that is true for you, so do be careful. But truly, keeping every email that comes in just clutters your desktop, your folders, your disk space, and your servers. Delete emails you don't won't need again.
Transfer To Do's to a task list.
This is by far the most powerful change I made.
For years I have told people not to use their Inbox as a To Do list, and all this time I was doing it myself! 🙃 Keeping an email in your Inbox to remind you to do something literally keeps clutter in your face at all times. Since my digital task manager (Microsoft To Do) is set up with priorities and such, I just zip over there to pick the next thing to do. No more getting distracted by the latest email. And all of my To Do's are in the same place.
Go figure! Keeping same-things in only one place works! 😁
But is Inbox Zero necessary?
The answer is no. This is not a goal that should be on your list for 2025.
I will never advocate getting to Inbox Zero just to get to Inbox Zero. If you want to, sure. But this isn't a race and there is no one who is going to send you a Gold Star when you reach it.
But that said, wow, has it reduced my mental load in what to do next.
The biggest change this created for me is removing the questions and the overwhelm related to incoming digital information. Microsoft To Do is my only task list now. I choose when I want to check emails. I have also turned off all notifications so when new emails come in, I am not pinged, rattled, jostled, or shook when something arrives. There is nothing waiting for me in my Inbox that someone didn't send to me recently enough that I can gracefully not reply for at least a short bit.
I realized - this is exactly what my clients feel when we find homes for all the things.
I RETHINK'd myself!
Let your Inbox serve you
In the end, Fastmail IT support ran a script on my account that fixed the problem without incident.
But the whole experiment changed the way I interact with my email.
Despite all my best intentions it turns out I had been "letting the tail wag the dog" as the saying goes. My email Inbox is there to serve me, not the other way around. And so relegating it to it's proper place has been liberating.
I am here if you need me, friends. I am happy to talk through strategies that help you lead a better and more fulfilling life at home and work.
When you're ready to tackle your tough organization project, I am here to help you learn how.
Let's RETHINK organization together.
For more information, visit the RETHINK website today.
Mandy Thomas is a professional organizer fulfilling her lifelong passion for creating order out of chaos. She finds joy in helping people tackle their most overwhelming spaces and collections to create the optimal living space and enjoy their homes.
RETHINK organization is on a mission to help you develop long-term patterns of organization that you can maintain and feel good about long after our work together is done.
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