How To Get To Inbox Zero

There are two types of people in the world as far as I’m concerned. Those with 1,888 unread emails currently sitting in their inbox, and those with zero. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’m the former and, yes, those 1,888 emails are all mine. Probably time to declare email bankruptcy and start again. My Gmail would give Marie Kondo a headache.

So, how can a self-confessed serial email hoarder like me take back control? One method is ‘Inbox Zero’, a term coined by productivity expert Merlin Mann in a Google talk 10 years ago. Many took this to mean that you should keep your inbox almost empty at all times, but Merlin says this process actually has nothing to do how many emails you file or delete: “It’s about how to reclaim your email, your atten­tion, and your life. That ‘zero’? It’s not how many mes­sages are in your inbox – it’s how much of your own brain is in that inbox. Especially when you don’t want it to be. That’s it.”