Empty Inbox: Delete
15 Feb
Many believe that deleting email is some how sinful, shows your slack attitude or is simply counter-intuative to the idea of mastering your inbox. But lets be honest we all receive so many drains on our time these days that treating every new email in your inbox as a sign of love that must be reciprocated is like writing your own mental death certificate. It might have been possible to stay sane with that attitude in 1993 but today it will defiantly result in you bouncing off the heavily padded ceiling.
The aim of this series is to help you manage an empty inbox. Without appropriate use of the delete key it’s very unlikely you’ll ever achieve that. As soon as you see a new email in your inbox you need to very quickly decide wether that message can be deleted or archived. This is probably the key secret to achieving an empty inbox because once you reduce the amount of rubbish you’ll start to see the gems. Delete junk, delete junk masquerading as precious gems and delete everything you’ll never respond to. What your left with is the gems that help you achieve.
Deleting is tough. It’s the hard option, leaving a message unread and un-actioned in your inbox is so much easier than accepting it will stay unread and un-actioned and you might as well just get rid of it now. You have to be honest with yourself as soon as you see a new message. Is there an action here? Will I respond to this? are questions you need to ask straight off and if you answer no for both get rid of it, and fast. Oh and while I’m on the subject don’t, for whatever reason, create some ‘holding’ folder. This won’t solve anything and it certainly won’t make those two questions easier to answer later on.
Those emails that you read and read desperately trying to find a way to deal with cause so much mental debt. I was in this situation and it left me feeling like a useless slacker. I wouldn’t be surprised if it would make you feel the same so seriously if your not going to do anything with the message just get rid. Remember if it was something you really wanted to and could respond to you would have done as soon as you read it.
The only way to have an empty inbox is to make use of the delete key!
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