All projects: Gel, Good Todo, Games, Uncle Mark, Bit Literacy
What feels "great and weird at the same time"? Something you should try.
Some people claim it's impossible to empty the inbox and liberate themselves from overload.
Take a look at this email. Came in this morning from Sean D., who gave permission for me to share it. His inbox now has zero messages in it:
Hi Mark. Well I'm there......ZERO!
From 1,900 last Friday, to zero today.
It feels great and weird at the same time. I've come to the conclusion that I utilized too much time just reviewing emails but not really getting much done with them. Those languishing in the inbox were a big distraction and were "time robbers". Being near zero afforded me to "do" more of what needed to be done. Now that I'm actually at zero, I'm certain I'll be on top of my game.
I'm also using the iPad app and the categories to split home and work.
Great tool and great experience all round.
Regards.
Sean.
You can learn this system in a matter of minutes and begin practicing immediately. Read my book Bit Literacy (free in the Apple iBookstore, and 99 cents in the Amazon Kindle store).
When an email says I have something to do, instead of letting it languish in my inbox, I now email it to Good Todo! Then I can determine its priority and context, and even whether or not I want to bother with it.
I've never been faced with 1,900 emails in my inbox, but I have, thanks to Good Todo, eliminated the inertia enabling cluttered inbox. It's been at zero since I started using the program.
The iPhone app is handy, but sometimes, when I'm heading out for a round of errands, I'll print the list for reference just so I don't have to mess with the phone.
I probably archive too many emails, but I keep them for reference. And they are not in my inbox!
Great post, very inspiring.
I'm going to check out the book now, but I was wondering - when you clear the inbox, do you actually archive all your old emails, or do you leave them in your inbox as read emails? I'm guessing the later, but I never seem to get around to archiving my emails!
Archive them somehow. Don't leave them in the inbox - otherwise it will never get empty! (More details in my book Bit Literacy, which is free or close to it on most e-readers.. see www.bitliteracy.com )