It’s been over a year since I started my Inbox Zero habit. On January 2, 2011 I cleared out my email inbox. And, for the most part, it’s been empty at the end of each workday since.
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, email, habits, productivity
I’m not so keen on New Year’s Resolutions. I think we tend to make them when we get caught up in the hopeful feelings that a fresh, new year brings. But I think they’re frequently not realistic. And we don’t give them enough time. And when one goes by the wayside, we give up hope on all of them.
Tagged with: aby garvey, clean bureau, clean desk, email, goals, habits, resolutions, shannon wilkinson
I think habits and routines are incredibly important for making life easier and achieving what you want. The routines I have created have helped me, a naturally messy person, maintain a semblance of order in my home.
Tagged with: don't break the chain, email, exercise, habits
On January 2, I cleared my inbox down to zero email messages. And since then i’ve done it every work day except two, when I was out of town without my computer. That’s nearly five months of inbox zero at least five days a week. (I usually do it on the weekends as well.)
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, blogging, don't break the chain, email, habits, productivity
I’ve written here before about Don’t Break the Chain as a tool for helping create daily habits. The concept is that once you do something a few days in a row (which can be aided by marking a calendar), you psychologically don’t want to break the chain and you’re motivated to do the activity again.
Tagged with: blogging, don't break the chain, email, habits, productivity
I’m going to be 50 next year and like many people my age, my vision isn’t what it used to be. Reading, in particular can be challenging. I’ve been wearing progressive lenses (distance vision in the top, reading vision in the bottom, with a little intermediate in between) for some years.
Tagged with: clean desk, email, habits, irritations, routines
I am bursting my buttons with pride, as I report that I have achieved Inbox Zero each and every day since January 2. That’s 38 days in a row that I’ve handled each message that’s come into my email inbox.
Tagged with: aby garvey, email, habits
So far this year I’ve established a couple of new habits that benefited greatly by starting with a clean slate.
Last night, I reached the elusive Inbox Zero. That’s right, I emptied my email inbox. This isn’t to say I don’t have any email messages. It’s just that they’re filed away in folders (or “mailboxes” in Mac Mail parlance).
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, decluttering, email
Lately, I’ve been taking a moment to unsubscribe from promotional emails I receive on a regular basis that I usually delete. Just a moment ago, I unsubscribed from promo emails from a major electronics retailer. When I thought about the last couple of times I shopped there, it was when I had something specific in mind. It had nothing to do with these promotional emails, which come almost on a daily basis.
Tagged with: decluttering, email, mail
I’ve been keeping sort of a crazy schedule for the last week. Lots of work outside the home, lots of phone time at home, quite a bit of fatigue. The result is that my email inbox, which I usually try very hard to keep under control, has grown and grown.
Tagged with: aby garvey, email, mark forster, time management, time timer
Inspired by my friend, Margaret Lukens, I’ve decided to point out some of my favorite from this blog from Junes gone by. June is usually a pretty busy blogging month for me (though not so much this year). I had so many posts to choose from that I’m going to split the recap into two posts.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, accountability, clutter clearing, decluttering, email
Staying on top of email is a perpetual challenge for most people. There’s a midground between letting it be a distraction and letting it pile up. I’ve worked out a system that works for me, actually allowing me to get to the elusive inbox zero last week (though I was up to 15 when I closed up shop last night).
Tagged with: email, marissa bracke
As I mentioned in my blog post called email liberation, I embarked in 2009 on a goal of having fewer than 15 messages left in my email inbox at the end of each work day. It’s worked out very well.
Tagged with: email
Two months and a week ago, I blogged about how I was experimenting with inbox zero, that is keeping my email inbox pared down to just a few messages that required action. This represented a major changing in thinking for me. For more than a decade I typically had thousands of uncategorized emails in my inbox (and many more thousand filed in folders). I never found that to be a problem.
Tagged with: aby garvey, accountability, decluttering, email
I freely admit that I’m an email packrat. Since my hard drive is large, I have no problem hanging on to emails I think might come in handy some day. This is a habit I’ve had since I started with email in the 90s. And I don’t intend to change.
Tagged with: aby garvey, decluttering, email
This morning I read this interview with Gina Trapani, the lead editor of Lifehacker on Zen Habits. It’s an interesting interview. In addition to the many posts a day Trapani writes for Lifehacker, she’s the author of a paper version. Her book, which is now in a second edition called Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better is a compendium from the best hacks from Lifehacker.com. I haven’t read it yet, but I do believe I’ll be purchasing it.
Tagged with: email, lifehacker, mark forster, productivity, time management, zen habits
Just a few days ago, I wrote a blog post about taming my email box. I vowed to use the trusted-three method, which I read about on Lifehacker, to empty my email inbox. I said I’d try it out and report back.
Tagged with: decluttering, email
I have to admit that I’m a bit of an email packrat. It seems fairly harmless to me, as long as my hard drive is large enough, and somehow having the history of many of my email interactions gives me comfort.
Tagged with: decluttering, email
Janine Adams, CPO®, CPO-CD®, specializes in working with chronically disorganized clients.
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