Comments on: How To Keep Your Inbox To Zero!

By: Michael Flint

Michael Flint — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:48:52 +0000

Thanks Rachel, I do most of these things. Two more tips:

1) I am much more productive at sorting my mail when I'm offline. When I'm online, I tend to get distracted. Offline, I can reply to an email and it will send later.

2) I still file mail into folders. I created a script that I can manually apply (with a keystroke) to one or more emails to sort them into their appropriate folders. I use this after the emails come in and get the initial filtering applied (like you mention above), but I don't want the mail filed automatically before I read it. Its a very fast way to file rather than moving an email manually.

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:26:01 +0000

If you click on the events button on the left side, it does show you all of
your events, regardless of RSVP. Give it a shot!

By: susanbeebe

susanbeebe — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:23:05 +0000

Great blog post! For the last bullet point above, I do the same, but also add the option to “archive” anything that's a web notification, newsletter, sales / coupon related, follow, update, etc. I have filters for multiple categories like these and always “mark as read” and archive, then check later. This way, like you noted, these items aren't begging for my attention (out of sight!). This allows me to focus on organic emails, not system generated stuff.

By: bernarddahl

bernarddahl — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:18:12 +0000

Apllied in part or in whole, all of these sound like good advice. I just got mine to below the 100-mail level this week… sigh/lol

Now if only Facebook had a calendar of all the events you get invited to, regardless of RSVP. That way I could apply your “looking for something to do at night” action.

Good stuff, glad Twitter suggested your tweet. Cheers!

By: Rachel Levy

Rachel Levy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:42:00 +0000

Thanks for the comment Tamara! Yes, I totally agree about RSS... I think
I'm so used to it, that I forgot! I think it's a very underutilized tool
for non-bloggers. Actually, I'm planning on writing a post about RSS next,
after finding myself explaining it in detail to my Dad last weekend :-)

Re sent items... that's interesting. I tend to be a pack rat with emails,
and never truly delete hardly anything. I just archive them. But, having a
system to keep track of who "owes you what" is important!

By: Tamara Gruber

Tamara Gruber — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:24:51 +0000

Rachel, agreed — be liberal with the unsubscribe! I also try to subscribe to all my newsletters via RSS so when I have time to catch up on blogs/news (usually on Google Reader for the iPhone when I have downtime), I can read them all together and they don't clutter the inbox. Another tip I have for staying on top of things is keeping your sent items clean. I go through these weekly and delete any sent items that have been resolved, responded to, etc. That way it is easy for me to see what I'm still waiting for a response on and what needs follow up.