Don’t you just hate it when important emails tend to slip out of sight in your email box and you just forget all about them? One of my goals for this year is to work more efficient and to work more with todo lists. Maintaining a zero message email box fits perfectly inside this objective.

It all started when I picked up a copy of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book. David describes a really good and efficient system of organising your work. I tried following his strategy to the letter, but for me that just wasn’t working. When I think up something new and exiting (that sometimes happens;)) I just want to start on that asap and I don’t like being restraint by my todo list or schedule.

In the spirit of “Change is inevitable, so roll with it” I decided to pickup the techniques I learned from my own experience and the “Getting Things Done” methods and apply them to areas that work for me. The first area being my mailbox.

1. Add a ‘Must Respond’ box

Try organising your emails into boxes. Whenever you browse through new emails, collect the important ones that you cannot respond to immediately and drop them into your Must Respond box.

2. Add a ‘To Read’ box

Just because you are weeding out the important emails doesn’t mean that you can sit back relax and read all the funny stuff, offers or announcements that people are mailing you. Collect them in a To Read box and read them in the evening when you are less focused.

3. Use a Second Mailbox for logins and signups

I sign up with at least 3-5 websites a week. These sites send me occasional news and updates through email. With twenty+ sign ups each month that quickly adds up to a lot of bulk mail cluttering your email box. Try collecting those emails in a different account like signup@yourdomain.com.

4. Create Template Responses

Having a couple of template messages laying around can be a real time saver. They don’t always have to be answers to problems or questions. When you are busy working on a project, a template response could help you free up time by letting the sender know you will get back to them or that you received their request.

5. Use unsubscribe more often

Maintaining a zero email inbox also forces you to think more about the regular emails you receive. Do you really need to know about every discount sale apple.com is having?

6. Get your Focus back

Turn of notifications and only read your email about ones every two hour or so. There are some people who advocate that you should read your email only twice a day, but that goes to far for me. On the other hand it is also claimed that checking your mailbox will cost you about 15 minutes of average work time each time you do it.

Extra tip

If you are really into maintaining todo lists and stuff you should try signing up with Hiveminder or Mailmanagr. Whenever you forward an email to Mailmanagr a todo item is created at Basecamp. The same works for Hiveminder, which is a todo list application on it’s self.

If you have any more tips of your own be sure to post them in the comments section.

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