Four Steps To Getting Started With Inbox Zero

When it comes to the Inbox Zero concept, there are two distinct camps – those who get it, and those who don’t. In order to apply the concept, you’ve got to realize that this is not about a specific methodology or even about maintaining a completely empty inbox at all times.  It’s a philosophy that can help a harried lawyer take charge of an overflowing inbox.

Not to worry, though.  This isn’t one of those philosophy classes you take in college as a way to feel cool, only to realize it’s waaaaaay over your head.  In fact, understanding the madness behind the method is as easy as these four steps.

Get Past The Zero

As a first step, don’t take the “Zero” literally. It’s catchy, but it’s not the whole picture. If emails come in faster than you clear them out, it’s not reasonable to think you’re going to reach this state of nirvana for more than a second or two. For the very few who aren’t inundated with emails, maybe you’ll have a little more luck.

Even Without Zero, The Concept Is The Key

In a nutshell, Inbox Zero boils down to this.  Scan your email once or twice a day and make an immediate decision about each one.  To make it even easier, you only have three choices to make:

1. Respond now
2. Save it for later
3. Delete

Ending The Addiction Is The First Step

Inbox Zero is not about obsessively clicking your inbox every second of the day. It’s about choosing a time that’s good for you and taking care of business now instead of putting everything off because it’s just too overwhelming and time consuming.  Remember those baby steps we’ve talked about?  This represents one of ‘em.

At some point we all realize that maybe a change in attitude about email is needed.  That’s the beginning of the journey, and an important start to make.  You can use any tool or strategy to accomplish Inbox Zero, but you must have the right frame of mind before any of them will work.

To End The Addiction, Change Your Thinking

Merlin Mann calls them the Articles of Faith.  I’m not of the mind that this constitutes faith – rather, it’s an attitude adjustment.

1. Unlike men, all emails are NOT created equal. You simply don’t have to give each one equal attention. Each day, you will only receive a few that are important enough to warrant immediate action. The rest can be put into a folder for later or simply deleted. In the latter case, you might not even need to open it.
2. Your valuable time is extremely limited. This is the one resource that you can never renew – no matter how green you go. Instead of squandering it based on other people’s demands, you should set your own priorities and hoard your time like a miser.
3. Less really is more – a one sentence, or even one word, response is not rude. It’s fast for you to write and fast for the recipient to read and understand. If the other party is short on time, they’ll appreciate it. They were probably never reading through those too long responses anyway.
4. There’s no crying in email! Seriously though, if you feel guilty or any other type of emotion that prevents you from taking action with your inbox, it’s time to let those feelings go. After all, you are running a business, and those kinds of feelings will only hold you back.
5. Be honest. Don’t lie about how much time you have or what you’re really going to do with a specific email. Are you really going to find time to read the hundreds of mailing lists that you signed up for when you can’t even get through your client’s messages? How about the client that emails you 10 times a day with the same question? By leaving them in your inbox, you can continue to promise yourself that you’ll get to it later. You’ll also continue to break that promise.

Instead of obsessively checking emails, get on with your workday and do something productive with your time. Each time you go through this process, you’ll get faster, and you’ll learn more about your habits so that you can use automated tools like rules and filters effectively without missing an important communication.

Don’t expect to remain at Inbox Zero for long, but that’s kind of the point. This allows your inbox to be used for what it is truly meant for, incoming communications, not a repository for all the crap you don’t feel like dealing with.

Next time we’ll go through the step-by-step process I use to get to Inbox Zero Nirvana.  We had to go through the basics to get to the how-to; if we didn’t, there would be no way to know why we do what we do.

photo credit: niczak

Jay Fleischman

Jay Fleischman is a New York bankruptcy lawyer and legal marketing consultant. A nationally-known speaker on the topic of law firm marketing and consumer law issues, Jay uses his productivity and time management techniques every day.