I finally did it. I got my e-mail inbox completely cleaned up and empty. I spent hours tonight reviewing over 1,000 e-mail messages that had accumulated in my inbox over the last few months. Fortunately, found less than half a dozen messages that I needed to respond to that I hadn't. Hopefully, those people won't be completely ticked off at me for not getting back to them in a more timely manner.
Most importantly, I properly filed all the various pieces of information I had been storing in my inbox in their appropriate places. That allowed me to delete the e-mail messages I had been saving in my inbox. Let's face it, the inbox is not a good file cabinet, yet most people use it as one. It really shouldn't be. I know it causes me unnecessary stress when my inbox is overloaded with mail. I'm always concerned I am not getting back to someone who is waiting to hear from me, or missing some important information that may help my business, family or life in general.
I recently finished reading David Allen's book Getting Things Done and am currently reading his second book Ready for Anything. I've read a lot of personal productivity and time management books over the years, but I really like David Allen's material. Mostly because I'm finding I am actually able to implement some of his suggesstions. I've been getting better at touching things only once, filing things for future reference and dealing with anything I can complete in 2 minutes or less. If I can't do that, I am able to setup follow-up actions with the comfort of knowing that I will see it and get it done. I've also been using the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In. As I spend a tremendous amount of time using Microsoft Outlook on my notebook and on my Treo, having software within Outlook that helps me be more efficient is a great advantage.
I feel so good having an empty inbox. I'm excited to see how successful I will be at keeping it this way and if it will really help me be more productive. I'm certain that it will. I'll let you know how I'm doing in a few weeks. Wish me luck and join me in the quest to keep an empty inbox.
