43 Folders: How to Keep Your Email Inbox Empty

43 Folders has a series of posts about how to get your email inbox down to empty. With 670 messages in mine this morning, 125 unread, just thinking about it makes me anxious.

But i know there can't really be any reason for me to have to save all the messages I save, newsletters I plan to read, and god knows what else is in there. And I cleaned it out last night from over 1000. Cloudmark does a decent job of collecting spam. So good that I just delete it without even looking through it anymore.

Says 43 Folders:

"Clearly, the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible.

Just remember that every email you read, re-read, and re-re-re-re-re-read as it sits in that big dumb pile is actually incurring mental debt on your behalf. The interest you pay on email you're reluctant to deal with is compounded every day and, in all likelihood, it's what's led you to feeling like such a useless slacker today."

BL:

Oddly, I am now director of marketing for Sproutit.com. Their first product, Mailroom, purports to solve some of these very problems. It's email management (robots do your mail). Shunting email to the right people, providing suggested responses, learning from your actions. I encourage you to keep on rockin' in the new world.

Thanks for pointing to 43 Folders and the Inbox Zero. I appreciate the insightful observation about the real detriment of a neglected inbox and reread (ad nuaseam) emails.