How Many E-mail Messages Are in Your Inbox?

I heard about the concept of the zero Inbox at a Microsoft Connections event a couple of years ago and have been using that idea ever since to more effectively manage all of my incoming mail. This has worked wonders for my productivity in managing all of the various messages that I receive for my own business as well as messages that I am handling on behalf of my clients. I did a quick poll of friends and clients to see how many others use this technique and was surprised to learn that most of them had an Inbox overflowing with unread messages.

Here is how I deal with my incoming E-mail:

Examine each message in your Inbox and immediately take one of the following actions.

• Delete it – pretty obvious right? If it isn’t something you need just plain get rid of it immediately.
• Delegate it – if this is something that someone else should handle on your behalf immediately forward the message to them and file the message away or set up a follow up if necessary.
• Complete it – if the message pertains to something you have to do and you can finish it in 2 or 3 minutes, just do it right away and delete or file the message.
• Add to Calendar or Task List – If the email pertains to a meeting, schedule the time on your calendar right away. In Outlook, you can drag the message from the Inbox to the word Calendar in the window on the left hand side and it will automatically bring up the window to schedule an appointment. If the message is a task then drag it to Tasks and schedule a date and time complete it. Note: When you drag a message to the Calendar or Task List in Outlook the original message stays in the Inbox so you can then delete it or file it away.

By the time I finish this exercise, my Inbox is empty and everything is either deleted, delegated, completed or has been scheduled to be completed at the appropriate time. I can then move on to working through my task list for that particular day without worrying about tasks that are scheduled in the future or wasting time wading through my Inbox to see what I have to do that day.

I hope you will try this technique out for yourself. I get such a good feeling when I look at my Inbox and there is nothing there. I know that I am controlling my E-mail and it no longer controls me.

So, how many E-mails are in your Inbox right now??