Inbox Zero Update

It’s been almost two months since I wrote about my Inbox Zero experiment and I am happy to share that I’m consistently hitting Inbox Zero every day. It does take some work but as an added benefit, I’ve been limiting my “email processing” to 2-3 times during the day so I am not constantly stuck in email all day (I do respond in real time from my phone, however). The system held up during a conference, which is usually when I get buried, keeps the weekend email manageable and survived a flood of back to school emails. I cleared out all my backlogged Stars and now use them for those high profile action items. I’ve also added a few To Do labels for my team so I can follow up on assigned tasks (team task management is the next big thing to crack). My “Needs Action” label has been working great. It’s the first place I go in the morning to see what I can knock out and it’s the last place I go in the evening to see what’s on the plate for the next day.

Of course, just as I figure out all this Inbox management stuff, Google goes ahead and finally announces Inbox for GAFE accounts, classic…

I like the system I’m using now. It’s simple and it works. If the Gmail app for Android supported Send+Archive, I think it might be perfect. I’m in no hurry to jump into Inbox right away. Maybe I’ll enable it on my personal Gmail account (cause it’s still a mess) and give it a go there.