E-mails are fast, convenient and free of charge. This is a blessing on the one hand, and a curse on the other: Mailboxes are overflowing and it feels like emails, newsletters and spam messages arrive by the minute.
Inbox Zero is a tried and tested method that puts you back in control of your inbox.
Table of contents
Find out how to keep your inbox tidy with a few simple rules.
How Inbox Zero works
In fact, an empty inbox is not the most important thing with Inbox Zero.
However, if you work according to the Inbox Zero principle, you will probably soon be able to enjoy an empty inbox.
That’s what Inbox Zero is all about,
- to give you back control over your inbox.
- to save you time and effort.
- to reduce stress.
- to enable you to work in a more structured and concentrated way.
There are only two steps you need to consider:
- Categorize emails
- Tame your inbox
1. Categorize emails
You can take the first step towards Inbox Zero by categorizing the emails in your inbox:
Handle immediately
Emails that you can process in less than two minutes are processed immediately. These are e.g: A short piece of information, a requested file or a simple confirmation.
After you have edited the e-mail, move it to a folder named“Done” or “Completed”.
Move / defer
If you need more than two minutes to process an e-mail, move it to a folder that you name “To Do ”.
Delegate
Just because you can do a certain task doesn’t mean you should do it. Delegate emails that are better answered by someone else.
You can then move the email to an appropriate folder. Tip: Name the folder with the recipient’s e-mail address. This way you know exactly which e-mail you have delegated to whom.
Delete
Emails that you do not want to keep for documentation purposes are best deleted immediately after you have processed them.
For all other emails, create a folder that you name “Archive”.
2. Tame your inbox
Source: giphy.com
“Always stay on the ball” is the motto today. But that doesn’t mean you have to check your email every 5 minutes.
Being constantly notified of incoming emails alongside your work has nothing to do with “staying on the ball”. Quite the opposite: it encourages you to constantly jump from ball to ball, which ultimately means you don’t really stay on the ball anywhere.
Even if this article is not about multitasking, this wonderful quote from Erwin Koch should get to the heart of the matter:
Multitasking means messing up lots of things at once.
Inbox Zero: Tips on how to reduce your inbox:
Deactivate notifications
Ideally, you should deactivate all notifications right away, not just those for your emails. Notifications take us out of our workflow and constantly distract us. According to a study by the University of British Columbia the systematic checking of e-mails saves time and reduces stress.
Time blocking
Time blocking is a time management method in which you schedule fixed blocks of time for a certain activity – in this case, processing e-mails. For example, you schedule 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at lunchtime and 30 minutes before closing time to work on your emails. In between, you have time for your tasks without being disturbed by notifications.
Clarify daily priorities
When you start work, define which tasks have priority today and stick to them. This way, you won’t let emails that appear in your inbox in the middle of the day confuse your priorities.
Set up email business hours
A business has opening hours. You have working hours. But emails come in around the clock and usually want to be answered immediately. Let your colleagues and business partners know the time frame in which you check and respond emails.
And for very important matters, there is always the telephone.
Final tips
- Emails that you can process in less than two minutes are best dealt with immediately.
- Always delete unimportant e-mails immediately.
- Emails that still need to be kept after processing are best stored in an appropriate folder (e.g. archive, customer, project, supplier, …)
- If you have a lot of emails to process, it helps to sort them by sender. This way, you can filter out newsletters and other unimportant emails. At the same time, you can see whether a certain sender has contacted multiple times.
You may also be interested in the following article:
5 elements of a professional e-mail0 (0)
It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Even with emails. Read this article to find out how you can save yourself and your recipients time and stress in digital correspondence.
