How to ZERO your Inbox?

For years now I've been working on how to manage my inbox. I was introduced to this concept after reading and listening to David Allen. The guy is a productivity genius. I started listening to his talk and buying his book titled Getting Things Done and Ready for Anything. I have not finished Ready for Anything but I did read and reviewed Getting Things Done (GTD). I think I wrote one or two articles about it but during that time, I have not fully implemented GTD to my own Inbox. The system works but it does not always work with my personality. I also struggled with consistency in the past but now I think I was able to handle it.

If you are a beginner in GTD, I encourage you to read the book but you may proceed with this article without reading it. Let me give you the GTD workflow from David Allen Co:

Trace it and it is very simple. You can actually follow this workflow and not read the book. But if you want to know the WHYs of doing it then read the book.

I did a modified version of this and If you are curious how I applied this in my Inbox please read on. Here's my implementation of GTD.

Tools: Gmail, notebook, and pen.

Focus on: What does DONE look like and What's Next action.

Friends: Delete and Archive buttons 

Step #1. Archive your old emails. If you have thousands of email, I encourage you to check all emails excluding the email you have for the day and move them to Archive. Now, you might be asking, "Why would I do that?" and "What happens if I missed something?" Let's deal with this valid questions right here:

1. Why would I do that? - You need to manage your inbox and you do that by reading all emails in your inbox. I am guessing you do not have the time to read them all. Archiving it is the best way to manage it. You can also delete all emails. I did this once and it did not got me into trouble.

2.What happens if I missed something? - You are already missing a lot of emails because you do not have a system to manage them. Yes there is a risk but you will soon find out that it's not a huge risk to take. You are also just sending them to archive so you did not really lose them. Moving them there means they are out of sight and therefore out of mind. 

Think of moving your old mails to archive as starting over.

Step #2. Read all email that you received within the day. Then decide what action needs to be done on each one.

Example: Announcement emails. Is there an action that needs to be done here? If not, delete the email (do not archive).

If there is an action, ask yourself, What is does DONE look like on this action? If you can do it in 2-minutes then do it (2-Minute Rule) otherwise, write the action on your notebook then archive the email.

Step #3. End with an empty Inbox. If you do Step #2, you should have an empty inbox and a notebook containing all the needed action that needs to happen. If your Inbox is not empty, go back to Step #2.

Step #4. Work on your notebook. Start from the top to the bottom. If you cannot do an item as of the moment because it needs to you be in another location or in need of a tool that is not available for you, you need to skip it (for now) and them move to the next. 

Question: Don't I need to prioritize this list? If you want to, DO IT. If not, you should be able to cover everything within the day. If another action needs to happen after you act on an item in your list, simply add them on your notebook.

Step #5. Check you email at most two times everyday. You just need to update your list. But you don't have to keep checking your list. It's counter-productive to check you email every time.

This should keep your inbox clean and keep you focus on what needs to be done.

Other things you should do is to unsubscribe to emails that you don't really read. This lowers your email intake and saves you time.

I hope this helps you become productive in your career and personal life. What you will notice is that your mind is free from work and worries because you know that all the things you need to do is now in your notebook. :) This is my GTD implementation and it works for me.