📩 The 8303 emails currently sitting in your inbox need to go now.

You deserve the peace of mind that comes with InboxZero! :)

Right now at this point in time, how many thousands of emails do you have unread in your inbox? Or, are you one of the handful of people who live by the InboxZero principles?

If you’ve been bothered by the excessive number of emails you have but can’t seem to get rid of them, whether you feel like you don’t have the time or it seems like these emails just give birth to new ones every hour, try these hacks below and hopefully I’ll see you on the other (cleaner, more organized) side.

6 steps to go from thousands to zero

Some people don’t find cluttered inbox as a problem, hence they just let it be. Subconsciously though, a visual clutter depletes your cognitive energy and could weigh down your productivity. This is why it’s important to divide the emails you receive into two main folders: Archive/All Mail and Readings.

Here is a simple routine identified by Matt Plummer, Founder of online platform Zarvana, consisting of 6 easy steps you can do to clear out your inbox:

1. Move all emails older than 7 days to Archive/All Mail, using the search formula:

   Gmail: in:inbox older_than:7d

   Outlook: received:<=1/27/19 (replace with the date 7 days ago)     

2. Move all emails that you are CC’d on and that are older than 3 days to Archive/All Mail.

3. Move emails that don't have your name in them and are older than 3 days to Archive/All Mail.

4. Move all newsletter and mailing list emails to your Readings folder.

5. Move remaining mailing list emails to Readings by searching for common mailing list terms.

6. Delete notifications of responses to calendar invitations.

Illustration by Chloe Krammel

Find the complete search formulas for each step and more detailed info on this routine here.

Going from Inbox Zero to Task Zero

The 6-steps routine from the previous section is one of the many ways you can implement InboxZero. Basically, InboxZero itself is based on 3 basic principles:

• For things you need don’t need to act on at all: delete or archive it.

• For things you do need to act on but which are quick and easy: respond or take the action required, then delete/archive the email.

• For things you do need to act on but will take longer than two minutes: move the email into a task list/task manager to be dealt with later and out of your inbox.

You might feel accomplished once you’ve fulfilled these 3 principles. But the task does not stop there, as you do need to get back to the Task List and deal with it later. Now, to really achieve a peace of mind with your productivity, aim for Task Zero instead of Inbox Zero. You can try out task management tools such as the Things App on Mac, Todoist, Microsoft To Do, and RememberTheMilk among many others.

Read more about the benefits of going Task Zero here.

The sent emails matter too

Once you got your inbox under control, do not forget to also utilize your outgoing emails to your advantage. Emails can be annoying if you let them rot in your inbox, or they can be life-changing when you send them to the right people at the right time. If you’re looking to advance your career, you might want to send some of these emails and see how they could shift things for you:

1. An email to someone you look up to.

2. An email to lift someone up.

3. An email to someone you just met (virtually counts, too!).

4. An email to an old co-worker.

5. A Thursday afternoon email to your boss.

Have you sent any of these emails before? See why these emails are important in the full article here.

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Hope to see you next week with a much clearer view on your inbox, tasks, and productivity in general. Cheers!