Inbox Zero - Save yourself some time

Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero articles have been around for a few years now. They’re still just as good at saving your precious time as they were back then.

For any inbox, overflowing or not: read them.

In addition to all of Merlin’s tips, I’d suggest one of my own (shamelessly): No Email Saturdays.

No Email Saturdays

Three weeks ago I started a weekly ritual which has become known as No Email Saturdays. At first it was hard to adjust. I found myself wanting to check my email just in case I got something important. Then I realized that it’s perfectly realistic to make myself unavailable for 1/7 of the week.

It’s not as easy as you think. Chances are, you’re more connected than you realize. I was.

The first two weeks I made the resolution not to check my email yet I found myself checking my iPhone to see how many emails I had received that I couldn’t read. That was bad. Like staring at a mosquito bite just wanting to scratch it.

This past Saturday I turned all of my email accounts off for the day. No badges on my phone, no vibrations or sounds. It was better but still I found myself occasionally thinking about what emails I might have gotten (I was particularly curious because I was waiting for an email from TechStars about an internship for this summer).

Each week is getting easier. I want to expand No Email Saturdays to No Email Weekends.

For those interested in starting No Email Saturdays, the best advice I can give is to just jump in.

  • You don’t need to be available 24/7. Take some time for yourself.
  • Ask yourself, “Is what comes into my inbox on Saturday really that important?”

If it makes you feel more secure about your departure from email for the day you can alert anyone who sends you an email that you won’t be available until the following day. This can be done quickly in Gmail by composing a vacation responder in the Settings menu.

If you give No Email Saturdays a try, let me know how it goes in the comments.

Give it a go, what have you got to lose?

Email/Forum spam pet peeve

Over the past year I’ve made it my mission to simplify my email system so I get only the things that I want or need and I eliminate the rest.

The things that keep finding their way into my inbox over and over are emails from forums that I haven’t used in years, or ever at all, that want me to come back and the only way I can get rid of them and unsubscribe is to login to that very forum that I haven’t touched in forever to uncheck some box somewhere on my profile page.

I’ve tried email rules in Mail to prevent them from coming through but somehow they manage to find their way onto my iPhone or just plain creep into my inbox.

No, Airsoft Forum, I don’t want your bi-monthly forum newsletter about the ongoings of your forum. I haven’t touched an airsoft gun since 8th grade. I’ve retired from your hobby, stop emailing me!