3 Steps to Inbox Zero

Unsubscribe, One Touch, Boomerang!

For the past week I’ve been going through an annual email ritual.

I unsubscribe from every email newsletter I receive. For two weeks.

This is the first of my Three Simple Steps to Inbox Zero.

(A friend on Simbi asked for some tips and liked them so much that I thought I’d share it more generally. So here you go.)

Start Big

1. Unsubscribe: at least once a year delete all subscription/newsletter emails. (If you love them, you will miss them enough to re-subscribe.) Bonus tip: you don’t have to wait to do this, evaluate any email each time you get it and unsubscribe if it’s no longer relevant.

2. One Touch: if you open an email, deal with it! Whether that means reading it and filing it, forwarding it to someone, replying, or (see below) Boomerang-ing it to handle later. Only deal with it Once.

3. Boomerang: I love this app. It has a bunch of great features. Mainly, you can schedule an email to come back to your inbox later. You can also use if statements so it only comes back if there’s no reply, for example. It’s free for up to 10 emails a month.

Optional Steps and tips

4. Sorting Hat: when your inbox is overflowing and you need to do a spring clean, sort them by sender or subject and go through similar emails together.

5. Hit Restart: just delete, or archive, your entire Inbox and start from Zero. I’m not a big fan of this one but it might work for you.

6. Create a Black Hole Holiday: instead of just an out-of-office auto-reply when you’re on the road, you can set up an action where any incoming emails are deleted and the auto-reply advises that the email was deleted and the person should email you when you’re back at your desk on such-and-such a date. Or the weak variant (mine) where I just say I’m completely offline so if it’s urgent call or email someone else or get in touch as soon as I get back.