Finally get to Inbox Zero with Boomerang

Use this clever hack to get to inbox zero all the while never forgetting an important email.

Yesterday, I got off the phone with a friend who is looking to get started building his first online business.

I recommended a few things for him to do during the call but not wanting to overwhelm him with every idea, I left some things off the table.

I then gave him a big task to complete — follow and complete a course designed to help him validate a business idea.

I gave him two weeks to complete it.

This is what I fully expect to happen had I left it at that:

My friend is busy and it’s hard to start something from scratch all the while staying motivated.

What I did

If you haven’t heard of Boomerang for Gmail — it’s a service where you can schedule emails to be delivered on a set date and time.

So right after my call I created two emails — scheduled for 7 and 12 days out respectively:

Email #1:

Email #2:

And I also sent out one calendar invite for two weeks out.

Then I went about leaving it for the next two weeks knowing that when the time came I would be reminded by my system.

How You Can Apply It

I use this technique to do a number of things almost daily including:

1. Email a client and get an automatic reminder in case they don’t reply within an allotted time.
2. Schedule followups emails for clients that are not ready to talk to me today but want to be reminded in the future.
3. Deliver emails with information to clients when they need it most (ie. to keep them motivated like the example above).

Altogether, these “hacks” help me reach inbox zero and keep my mind clear of having to remember every little detail.

Try it out and see how great it feels not to have a million emails and things to remember on your mind.

Click here for a Free Guide — “7 Steps to Hack Your Way to Inbox Zero”

Your Mind is Limited

At any time, we can only hold approximately 7 ± 2 things on our mind. This is known as the magic number seven or Miller’s Law.

One of the biggest lessons I have learnt this year is that people can be very forgetful and that’s mostly a result of holding too much in our working memory.

The more things you are able to offload to technology or even daily habits — the more it frees up our minds to work on important things.

I’ll be putting a lot of these outsourcing and automating ideas into my upcoming book entitled “Escape Your Bad Habits”.

Click here and i’ll notify you when its ready!

Imran Esmail writes at Escape Your Desk Job where through stories and case studies he shares methods you can use to cut out distractions, implement sustainable habits and ultimately build the life you’ve always wanted.

If you are looking for hacks to be more productive, join his free newsletter.