chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in How I Tamed My Inbox

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:42:17 -0000

Family/Home – my first priority, of course.
Commitments – these are things where someone’s awaiting a response or action for me that takes more than a few minutes.
Projects – These are more regimented things, like when the boss asks you to build out a new experience at a conference.
Speaking – I do lots of speaking, and I want to keep my commitments straight, and my details sorted.

thnx a lot.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

ottogelderman — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:17:15 -0000

I posted a similar post on my blog a while ago: doing something RAD with e-mail:
http://gelderman.org/blog/2... with more links to inbox-zero articles.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Chris — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:51:08 -0000

I'm interested in finding out if your workflow has improved over the past year. I've been migrating away from email as much as possible and your article was an impetus for me to purchase Things and give it a try.

I used Things for a few weeks and was loving it, but like you said, you have to focus on using it. After a while, e-mails would pour in and I would have to sort through every one to delete or archive. I began feeling overwhelmed with email, client requests and projects. I personally hate email now and would like to never have to use it again, but there is always the problem of clients requiring it.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Sandra @ Guiding Vision — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:51:32 -0000

Great post and comments. I guess I don't get the reason for the additional step of using Things. I've been using Outlook for years and recently moved to Thunderbird but don't like it much better. I think I'll try Gmail and just use a combination of labels, the archive button and star items that need action.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

John Kellden — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:15:42 -0000

Great post, thanks Chris. I tag every single incoming email, and then I just leave them be. If there's something I need to attend to later the same day, I mark those un-read. If there are others that I want to get back to, but can't do that same day, I put a star on them. By having the most important, most urgent email marked as *unread*, they show up at the bottom right corner, in the Firefox addon Gmail Manager. It's a godsend.
There they sit and gently work their *unread* charm in my peripheral vision, until I've worked up enough guilt to go ahead and just do it. Answer. Reply. Or somesuch.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Marsha Egan — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:34:12 -0000

Great post, Chris, and congratulations. Alot of this is about knowing yourself, and taking control!

One of the things that helps me the most is to go into the inbox with the intention of SORTING frather than WORKING. If anything requires action, I have an Action A folder (for the important stuff)and and Action B folder (for the less important stuff.) This is ONLY where I keep it. Like you, I set a diary for anything that is time sensitive... but the cool thing is now I know exactly where to go to get it. You can flag things to denote family, blog ideas, etc., and search and sort them that way too.

Then, this all comes together when we plan our days, once a day. That's when we check our diaries, the Action folders, the phone calls we must return, the meetings, etc... This was featured in my 12 Steps that went 'round the world in February 2007, and alot of folks thought it worked well.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

asda — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:37:16 -0000

tasutavideod.kilu.de

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

houstonhotdeals — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:29:24 -0000

great article

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Vidar Andersen — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:33:12 -0000

Great to see yet another one freed from the tyranny of E-Mail herding and procrastinating! :)

I've been an avid 'inbox zero' practitioner for a long time myself without knowing it. I've recently come to know about David Allen and Merlin Mann and their great contributions to Getting Things Done.

I guess what makes my 'methodology' a bit different is that I do not label or differentiate my mails - and I use my inbox as a list of my current to-dos. I find it much more efficient for me personally.

I pulled off an attempt to describe what I do to get things done on my blog not so terribly long ago:
http://stopmebeforeiblogaga...

With the advent of GMail, handling my mail has gotten ridiculously easy. Just achive and forget - search when needed. I cannot imagining going back to herding my mail ever again.

I also recommend the GMail BlackBerry app for getting things done when on the move:
http://www.google.com/a/hel...

On another note to fellow Europeans, remember to verify that your devices have been successfully adjusted +1 hours after midnight today, as Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends. ;)

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Carissa Thorp — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:14:28 -0000

I'm using Gmail and Things too. They work great together, especially with the following tips:

Each item in gmail has a unique address; just choose the New Window link in the top right hand corner. You can drag any link to Things and it will create a new To Do item with a direct link to the email in the Notes section.

If you're using Firefox, the add-on QuoteURLText will copy any text you select and the url with one click, ready for pasting into Things.

The only problem at the moment is that Things doesn't recognise https (encrypted connection) links and make them clickable. I only use Gmail encrypted, so I have to select any url and choose "Make Link" in the context menu. Hopefully this will be fixed in coming versions.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

MikeR — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:56:00 -0000

I started today and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Here's my method:

Open Outlook every two hours.
Process emails:
-Tasks/Projects go into TaskCoach (which now supports dragging and dropping an email to create a new task)
-FYIs, Thank You's, most CC:s get read and deleted
-Anything I TRULY think I might need later for CYA or for reference gets archived in a big archive folder that I'll search when needed using Copernic.
-Delete everything else with extreme prejudice

I let my coworkers and boss know what I was doing and why so they could understand why I wasn't treating Outlook like an IM client as our team has done in the past. So far so good!

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

JudiFree — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:34:24 -0000

I just got to ZERO! Thanks for the inspiration. Now, let's see if I can keep it there.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Karen — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:14:08 -0000

Re: Frank Carver's comment 3/22.
"Having been very frustrated by Outlook’s approach to archiving (which makes archived email much harder to access) in the past, I had never clicked that button in GMail."

If there's anyone out there who still hasn't figured this out, nevernevernever let Outlook auto-archive your e-mail. If you want to archive messages (say, your employer's IT department has a limit on how much you can store in your Mailbox), create a personal fold (.pst) and manually drag & drop to it.

That's not always efficient, but at least you'll be able to find what you archived--and if you can't, what's the point? This works best if you collect all messages related to a project in one folder (as suggested in Chris's article) and then move the folder to the archive after the project is complete. Manually. (Did I say that already?)

OK, some would say the better approach might be to skip Outlook in the first place (although I like it better than most Microsoft products), but if you're using it this is the way to go.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

kaneiet — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:19:44 -0000

es tu vins vina vini!

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

chrisbrogan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:40:22 -0000

@E.T. - I don't, exactly. I do some copy/paste if I need details, but otherwise, I just transfer it up and over. Portage style.

@Tashjian - good point about not sending to all. Phew.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Tashjian - Webshop — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:42:50 -0000

Thanks for the post. A couple of other points to consider to not to give out your primary email address to everyone. And if you work for a company ask management to constantly remind everyone not to "Send to all" unless it's truly necessary.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

E.T.Cook — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:33:19 -0000

You aren't that specific about how you transfer the messages and "mail" tasks to Things if you use Gmail. If you use mail, I know you can drag the message into a context or project, but how do you integrate gmail into the fold with Things?

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

randulo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:23:59 -0000

heh, "undread" messages! I meant "unread", but non-spam which is often called "ham" could be in the "undread" category :)

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

randulo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:22:47 -0000

"As an aside, what do you do about incoming email which does not have an obvious associated action - such as discussion mailing lists, automated status updates or subscriber newsletters?"

What I do is filter them by server of origin and file by subject. Looking at Gmail "folders" you'll see the number of undread messages, and you'll look when you're in the mood to read about each interest, e.g., design, aero, exercise or Cubs.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Frank Carver — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:30:00 -0000

Thanks Chris.

I have experimented a bit more, and I think I have found my problem. I was misunderstanding what "archive" meant. In GMail, it seems that "archive" just means "do not show in inbox". This is very different from what (for example) Outlook means by "archive". Having been very frustrated by Outlook's approach to archiving (which makes archived email much harder to access) in the past, I had never clicked that button in GMail.

A clarification of your article might be to elaborate on your section on processing incoming mail. How/when do you archive your email. Do you have a rule which archives everytyhing automatically to keep your inbox empty? Do you do it manually after you have labelled an email as "Family/Home", "Blogging" etc.? Do you use some other approach? I found it puzzling that you include the archive button in "You’ll Need", but then never mention it again.

As an aside, what do you do about incoming email which does not have an obvious associated action - such as discussion mailing lists, automated status updates or subscriber newsletters?

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

randulo — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:21:05 -0000

Chris, as an occasional correspondent, my suggestion would be to add a keyword or two that you tell people about and use Gmail's filters to file them. So for me, you can add "crackpot" and I'll send my ideas to you with that word in the subject. All my ideas will be filed under "crackpot". Perfect, no?

Sneakemail.com has the advantage that each address can be turned off or deleted if you find yourself spammed to death. I use Sneakemail for all forms and memberships, at least until I'm sure the company won't sell my email into spam slavery.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

chrisbrogan — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:38:45 -0000

Hi Frank--

I don't use folders. I pile all the mail in an archive, because if there was data I really needed to complete a task or to know something, I move that into Things. The mail just stays in an archive.

The point is to make the mail app NOT be where you think about things. It's where you receive info, and then do something with the info. Save the mail for reference, just in case, but otherwise, you DO stuff elsewhere.

Make sense?

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Casey McKinnon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:22:37 -0000

And looking at my Flickr stats on the screencap of my empty inbox (which has currently been seen 350 times):

32% of traffic came from Pownce
24% of traffic came from Flickr
14% of traffic came from Twitter

Another thing to consider ;)

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

Frank Carver — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:25:02 -0000

There seems to be a step missing in your description. I don't really understand how you get from categorizing email (which I do already) to what is shown in the image. Gmail puts every mail I have ever received into my inbox, even if I have read it and tagged it with labels. Is this picture meant to indicate that you have deleted all your email - if so, how can you refer back to it? I thought the point of gmail is that it keeps everything and makes it searchable.

In other, traditional, email clients, I can move stuff from the inbox to folders to get it out of my face, but gmail does not seem to support that way of working. I can't even find a way of displaying only un-labelled conversations (which would seem to be the equivalent of a traditional inbox).

Or have I missed something obvious? Baffled.

Re: How I Tamed My Inbox

chrisbrogan — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:51:25 -0000

By the way, Casey McKinnon put a Flickr screencap of her empty inbox with a link to this post. That link got me 40 new reads of the post. That's just something to consider when you're posting to Flickr. Another source of traffic.