I have found myself multiple times in this situation where I have too many emails in my inbox, some I have even read and just haven't been able to decide what to do with them. Every time I open my email account there they are, staring at me and reminding me of the constant mess that exists. Recently I started searching for a solution to this problem. I am now practicing a system that I found to be working for me so far. I'm going to share with you how I achieved Inbox Zero and you can too.
The multiple account problem
I, and I'm sure many others like me, end up creating multiple email accounts for multiple things. It seems like such a good thing to do to separate out the different aspects of our life. We have different accounts for social networks, for email clients, work email, junk ads, website sign ups and so many others. I finally stopped to take a look back at what a mess I have created by creating so many accounts. I ended up eliminating some of the accounts that I don't absolutely need for my existence. Further, there is a way to forward all emails automatically to another account. I recommend that one must have not more than two accounts for personal emails now. One for more 'official' personal usage like important tax registrations etc. and the other account for everything else from social networking to personal emailing to shopping website sign ups. The key is to control the spam that these websites send by unsubscribing to newsletters etc.
When Labels became an Overkill
When I first started using gmail I absolutely loved the idea that you can label things, so much that I created and kept creating labels for everything. Last week when I checked I had over 40 labels and I was spending time trying to figure out which label I must have applied for which email. It clearly had failed its original purpose of making it easier to find an email. The feature I used the most was searching gmail archives rather than going by labels. Perhaps that was gmail team's original vision regarding Archives anyways. For those who don't know, there are two things you can do to a fresh email after reading. You can either trash it or you can archive it. Once you trash it, google automatically deletes those emails after 30 days. Once you archive, it disappears from the inbox and goes to the archive. It then stays there forever to be searched whenever you want. Google provides enough space to arvchive your important messages and keeping it forever. After using my gmail account for almost 8 years now, I have still only half filled the provided space, and that space provided by Google also keeps growing so I'm not really worried. Now before archiving these messages, there is an option to apply labels to them.
My 4 Label Email system
I have now simplified my label system to have only 4 labels. Now the idea is to put everything that needs regular review into one of these four categories and the rest go into archive without any labels. I will be relying on the gmail's search system rather than my 40 labels to find something.
Now coming to my 4 labels. The first and most important label is !Action. This is applied to items that I'm working on or supposed to work on, finish and perhaps reply. Once I've 'completed' the action, I archive these emails. The second label is !Hold. This is applied to important pieces of information that might come in handy very soon. This can include things like a movie ticket or a flight booking information. Once I don't need it anymore, I simply move this to archive. My next category is !Read. This contains all the emails that contain important information that i need to read before archiving. This may contain important news articles or other announcements and reports. My final category is !Waiting. This is for emails where I'm waiting for somebody else to do something before I can proceed with my part.
It is an extremely simple system but it works, at least for me. I have seen some people put another label called !Someday/Maybe. As of now if some action is required it is put in my !Action folder, not necessarily differentiating something that I need to do now or 3 months from now. I do use a TODO system where I might move tasks that are too far away and don't belong email folders. I'll discuss my TODO system another day.
But do remember
The system might be in place now but what's important is to stick by the basic rules.
1. When you open an email it doesn't belong to Inbox anymore. You need to either trash it, archive it or label it.
2. Regularly review the items in the 4 categories. Doing the !Actions, Reading the !Read items and following up appropriately on the !Waiting items. Archive it in the end.
There! You have my system. Give it a try and hope you experience the same good feeling of control when it comes to email and to your life.
