An empty inbox - several years in the making

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Oct 10, 2007

I've done it. I've sorted all the emails in my inbox into folders and replied to a good number of emails that have been annoying me for some time.

Check it out...

This is the first time in years my inbox has looked this good, so I thought it appropriate to screenshot it so I can reflect on my glory in the future.

This isn't to say I'm not busy - I have never had so much work happening at one time, and there are plenty of emails filed away in the archives that need to be actioned. But now they are all in one place so I can work my way through them methodically and without missing anything.
I have been really struggling lately with responding to the amount of enquiry generated by having a few blogs on the go and an open-source project. How do you keep on top of everything - if you answer every email immediately, it interrupts your workflow, and makes time tracking difficult for time-billable jobs. If you leave emails too long, it makes you look tardy, and there is the risk they fall off the bottom of the inbox and get lost in the void.

The more time I spend in business, the more I realize it's not enough to be good at what you do. You need the discipline to be able to say no to interesting jobs that you are too busy to take on, and to be able to properly manage the jobs you do have. And you need to keep that inbox under control. Let's hope I can make this new-found whitespace last.

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Comments

Frank - Empty Inbox Enthusiast - Oct 11, 2007

Hey Harvey,

I think you are absolutely right. Half the battle is choosing the right jobs to take on and knowing when to say no to jobs.

This is especially hard in the beginning when
a) I need the cashflow
b) I need the recognition and
c) I am enthusiastic about taking the projects on.

Thank god for message filters anyway, same goes for lifehacker.com.

Michael Brandon - Shipping to Australia - Oct 11, 2007

You are definitely an inspiration Harvey. I turn my back and they go from 400 to 800 unread in a flash. The Europac email that this comment is linking to related to an email that was around a month old. Got a phone call today, and so actioning it for some link building.

Michelle Miles - Oct 23, 2007

How is your inbox after the WDANZ Conference last week Harvey. Have you managed to keep up with it?

Mine wasn't empty before WDANZ but I'm rather more behind now.

Worth it though for all the great information shared and people met at WDANZ.

Dunken Francis - Nov 1, 2007

I get between 150 ans 250 emails a day. I shift/select/delete the obvious nonsense then go through and anything that is important and ongoing I create an inbox rule for, and gradually over the course of a project stuff starts filing itself!!