Working on emptying my Inbox

What's in your Inbox right now? Mails? Do you know exactly what mails are there your in your Inbox? More importantly why are they still there? For future reference? You might need it in the future right? So when exactly do you need that information and more importantly are you sure you are going to find that information in your Inbox when the time comes that you might need it?

If you are like me, my Inbox contains information from previous projects, mails from my peers, meeting minutes, project specifications, some jokes, some thought-pondering messages, some errands I did in the past, some references, some undeleted FYI mails from management, etc etc etc. - unsorted, outdated, and maybe useless. I kept them for "future reference". I though that this is a good thing since I might need an information in the future so placing them in my Inbox is the best thing to do. This way IF the time comes that I need to get an information I can just go down to the search bar, type a word or words that I made as a mental bookmark for that email and then hit the search button. I should get that information right? In my experience this does not always work. Most of the time either "the time" never comes or when I hit the search button my "mental bookmark" is pointing to the wrong word.:) Most of the time I ended up asking for that information from other people.

I realized that my Inbox is full of mails mentally labeled - "I-don't-know-what-they-are". So feeling the lack of Inbox-management I decide to do the "radical" I scanned my Inbox and look at my mails. Then I created a folder called "Reference" in my mail application and drag all the references that I will (not might) need in the future. I also added an "Action" folder to place all my mail that requires me to take action. I also added an "Waiting for" for mails that I am waiting for a response. Then I marked the remaining mails and did the impossible (or so I thought) - hit the DELETE key. I watched as my Inbox shrunk from the tens of thousands to zero.

It was liberating.:) It was daring. Or was it stupid? :) Before I branded myself foolish for doing what I have not done in years, I began to recall what I learned from Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen and I tried to create a system in processing my Inbox.

These are GTD Inbox-processing questions when receiving a mail:
1. Is is actionable? If not ask #2.
2. Is it a reference? If yes, I place it in my reference folder if not I delete it.
3. If it's actionable, can I do it in one to two minutes? If yes, I do it immediately.
4. If it's not a doable in one to two minutes -> either I decide on the next actionable step or park it in my calendar if it's a scheduled task.

This process should get me the information organized and keep my Inbox clutter-free.