In defense of Inbox-zero
As an email aficionado, this was a very interesting week due to the launch of Hey - the new email service from the fine folks at Basecamp.
The most exciting part, for me, was the fact that it made people talk about email - which is rare these days. There's a common understanding of what email is and how things work and so nobody tends to care so much anymore. Hey introduced plenty of fresh ideas on how we can deal with email, and that got people talking
One thing I found amusing was how people tend to rely on anything else except themselves to solve simple problems. I read countless tweets on how Hey's new users are marveled at the simplicity and cleanness of their new email, and the fact that the "horrible and pointless grind of inbox zero" was removed.
Before I move to address exactly that, let me add a short paragraph. Do you remember us all feeling exactly that when about 16 years ago Gmail arrived? I do remember feeling it was a game changer, and everything was so clean. But guess, what, tell me if it's that clean in 6 months time, or a year, of intensive email usage. It is only then, and not now, that we can test the effectiveness of such tools.
Anyway, let's get back to the point of this article: inbox zero. It's seem a bit trendy to bash on this "old" concept. Unfortunately, most people who criticize (and many who try to do it) don't have a proper understanding of what it means. It is, thus, no surprise that some grow to hate it and see it as a cause of stress and pressure when dealing with email.
I thought that the best way to being this newsletter and journey through email would be exactly to start at the inbox and the concept of inbox zero.
The origins
You might have already read about Getting Things Done (GTD). GTD is the world's most acclaimed productivity method. It introduces many interesting concepts and workflows on how to manage our day to day. In GTD, the concept of "Inbox" plays a vital role.
In GTD, the Inbox is a central place where 'stuff' lands. GTD's creator, David Allen, uses the word 'stuff' to mean something which is not yet clear and doesn't have a defined purpose or action. This is a core aspect of the inbox and the main steps in GTD. Most people fail to understand this and then say the method doesn't work for them.
In other words, the Inbox only holds stuff which is completely new, which you haven't give any attention to and thus not made any decision yet.
This implies that, once you "process" an item in your inbox - meaning, you decide what it is and what it's action should be - it can no longer stay in the inbox.
In GTD, an Inbox is thus a place where even with a 1 second glance you can get a quick idea of the amount of "stuff" you need to look and make decisions about.
For this to work, it recommends to empty each inbox at least once a day or every two days. Otherwise, you can miss important stuff in due time.
This became known as "Inbox zero".
How to do it?
When processing the Inbox, the GTD methodology advises focus on one item a time. That means you give your full attention to that item (email, paper, object, ...) and decide:
what is this?
what is being required from me? is there any action to take?
if yes, what is the very next (physical) action?
Once you have a reply for these questions, then the item has to be parked somewhere else outside the Inbox.
I'll leave the 'where?' for the next article, but in general terms, you want to organize things according to their nature. An actionable item is different from something which you are "waiting for". It is also different from something you want to keep archived for future reference. So, different things have to go to different places.
One key aspect of this "processing" step, is that you have to commit to NOT do anything. You are only bringing clarity to each item, making decisions and organizing things to be acted upon later.
That means you are not interrupting this process to do anything, and so it should be fairly short.
In that way, your Inbox will be empty - that means, nothing on your plate today is unclear to you about what it is or needs to be done.
You see, Inbox-zero is not a pressure to keep something empty or clean. Inbox-zero is a way of working, that allows you to keep your mind focused on things that matter by not allowing unclear "stuff" to get in the way.
You may not do it - most people don't - but you can be sure that at an unconscious level, all that unclear, undecided 'stuff' will be there clogging your mind and diverting your attention at different times in your day.
I centralize 6 different email accounts (personal, work and hobby projects) in just one Inbox which I do my best to empty daily. If I'm not able to, that's OK. I look at how many items are there and I know how many new things popped up in my life and are demanding my attention. That feedback is valuable.
And when you do get Inbox-zero, there's that very nice feeling of not having any loose ends and being in control.
When you work with your Inbox in this way, you do not want new things to go anywhere else except the Inbox. Otherwise, a vital step of this workflow is being skipped and can potentially boycott the process.
One example of this was when I was still using Gmail and Google introduced that "smart/priority" inbox. Now different emails were being highlighted according to what Google thought was a good idea. Others were taken away from might sight and placed in tabs called "promotions" or "social". I didn't even bother to test this for a day or two. It was an immediate no-no. Everything that is for me, has to pass through me, and I will decide its place.
Don't ever let software do that for you, regardless of calling it AI or something else.
It is, however, fine if you create your own filters that send specific emails to folders.
Next article we will see the best practices of how to organize emails after they leave the Inbox.
See you soon,
Nuno