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One of the sexier ideas out there in the productivity space is “Inbox Zero”—that elusive idea of keeping no emails in your inbox. What a wonderful concept: having no email! What’s not to love?
Unfortunately, to always have no email, you also need to spend far more time and attention on email. The problem with inbox zero is simple: you can’t stay there.
Today, I got to inbox zero. I did it by answering all of the emails that had come in since yesterday, as I usually do during my email sprints. But almost immediately after getting to zero, I got a response to an email I had just sent. That meant I was no longer at Inbox Zero.
Away, ghastly email! So, what should I do? Should I respond to that email in order to stay at zero? If I do, and two more emails come in, should I tackle those as well—regardless of how important they are? Or should I get on with my life and work on more important things?
To get to Inbox Zero, you have to respond to email. Which leads you to receive more responses in turn. Which pulls you out of Inbox Zero. It’s the cycle of email: what you send will come back to you.
When your goal is to always have a pristine and empty inbox, email can take over your day and make you far less productive.
I personally like the idea behind Inbox Zero—it’s nice to clear the messages we have on deck. A clear inbox often means a clear mind.
But a habit of always getting back to zero emails does not lead to a clear, focused mind. It leads to the opposite: more busyness, more responsiveness, more distraction. It also means we have less attention to do focused work. Email is typically not the most productive thing we can focus on. We have things to create, projects to ship, things to write. Our most productive work typically happens outside of our email inbox.
This isn’t the case for everyone—in a few jobs, an inbox zero mentality is far from dumb. If your job involves a lot of coordination, having an “inbox zero” mindset may be beneficial. Or maybe you’re a high-powered executive assistant, and promptly getting back to everyone is why your colleagues have come to rely on you so deeply. Or maybe you have oddly-demanding clients who you need to keep happy. In experience, examples like these exist, but are typically few and far between.
Inbox Zero is a mindset that can take over your life if you’re not careful. Instead, try doing email sprints—my favorite email tactic which I wrote about last week. This tactic will cost you a lot less attention, while saving you precious time that you’ll be able to spend on far more important things.