Clear your inbox with the Inbox Zero method

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Summary

I notice that most managers’ email inboxes are overflowing and they are becoming increasingly frustrated.

I often hear that Inbox Zero would be great but is not feasible in practice.

I receive up to 500 emails a day and still have not only Inbox Zero but also Outbox Zero every evening. An empty outbox is just as important for keeping track of delegated tasks.

Here are my most important tips:

  • Avoid unnecessary e-mails, e.g.
  • Do not write any more internal “thank you” e-mails
  • Document meetings not by e-mail, but with MS Planner as a Kanban board
  • Use RSS readers to follow blogs instead of subscribing to newsletters. With Feedly you can even read email newsletters
  • As a manager, let your assistant process your emails as much as possible. In the analog world, paper mail was always pre-processed by the secretary. In this context, by the way, I am against the abolition of assistants.
  • Schedule 60-120 minutes every day as the penultimate blog of the day to process your emails en bloc. Before that, only check emails that you see filtered with the VIP function. I use my Apple Watch for this. SMS is a good emergency channel. It’s even in my signature (I check my emails once a day at the end of the day. In urgent cases, please text me on +49 170-93 170 93). By the way, the last thing you do is plan your next working day, which you do NOT start with e-mails, but end with them.
  • Create at least the following e-mail subfolders:
  • Monday, Tuesday, etc. to store emails that you need for meetings on these days or that you will be working on on these days. These folders are also filled by my assistant, who has full access to my e-mail inbox.
  • Wait to store mails that you have sent and for which you are waiting for a reply.
  • Filing – possibly divided into projects for emails that you have to archive (for legal reasons). Incidentally, this does not include thank you emails 😉
  • Use the 1-2 rule, i.e. if you move an e-mail to a subfolder, delete at least 2 e-mails from this folder. This always works. If you can’t find any more, you are deleting too few. When you reply to an e-mail, you should always delete the e-mail you received, as it is contained in the reply and is therefore redundant.

In summary, my experience is that many people are even less organized in the digital world than in the analogue world (we empty our normal letterbox every day). However, with the right organization, you can also use digitalization to increase your productivity. For example, you can work together with your assistant in different locations.

More tips like this? Then feel free to follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thorsten-jekel

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