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Empty Your Outlook Inbox with the "Zero Email Bounce"
Posted by Gina Trapani at 3:00 AM on March 5, 2008
Microsoft Outlook user and GTDer Scott Hanselman uses flags and search folders to clear his inbox. Scott writes:
I also try to get to ZEB (Zero Email Bounce) every day or so. This is when you "bounce" up against zero emails in your inbox... This doesn't mean that you've done all your tasks, instead it means you know what your tasks are. [...] Remember that your inbox is not storage, it's a list of what hasn't been categorized yet.Hit the link to see the folders Scott uses to categorize his messages—in fact, his system isn't far off from my Trusted Trio.
Tags: email | email apps | microsoft outlook | outlook | outlook tip
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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techchic
Posted 4:59 AM 5/3/08
I tried this, it didn't work for me. I have to get my tasks completely out of Outlook in order to be effective. Two things I have found:
1. Categories are a blessing in Office 2003 and an absolute must in Office 2007. Use the shortcut sequence Alt + A + I + A and you can then type the first few letters of the category to highlight it, use the space bar to check the box (repeat as needed) and then hit enter.
This may not be worth the effort for everyone, but for me it was too difficult to trace the history on clients and other projects if there wasn't some way to aggregate the information in my archives.
2. Toodledo (or your preferred to-do manager) is excellent for keeping all of my tasks together in one place but OUT of Outlook itself. I am a recent convert and I absolutely love the features.
I forward the relevant portions of email to my Toodledo address and file the email.
The Outlook task manager and search folders just didn't work for me.
As email arrives I delete the noise, categorize everything else, forward to Toodledo if action is required and then file the email. The inbox is empty and my trusted system now holds all of my tasks.
techchic
AndyFromTucson
Posted 1:45 PM 5/3/08
I also do not use my email program (Thunderbird) as a to-do list. When I read an email in my inbox I either respond right away and archive it or I make an entry in my to-do list application and archive the email. That way I know that all the things I need to do are in one place (my to-do list application), and the process of creating a to-do entry from an email forces me to figure out what the needed next action is so I don't have to read and mentally process the email again.
AndyFromTucson
whoisvaibhav
Posted 7:22 PM 5/3/08
Well, here's a video of Merlin Mann explaining the same thing to folks during a Google TechTalk:
[video.google.com]
whoisvaibhav