{"id":287,"date":"2006-05-15T01:39:23","date_gmt":"2006-05-14T20:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/blog\/2006\/05\/15\/the-power-of-zero\/"},"modified":"2006-05-15T01:39:23","modified_gmt":"2006-05-14T20:09:23","slug":"the-power-of-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2006\/05\/the-power-of-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

“43 Folders” has always been an interesting and insightful source of information on how to make the most productive use of time.  And, once again, it offered some valuable advice on tackling one of the most menacing evils of modern times : The Inbox<\/a> !<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

These are posts from a special 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you’re familiar with GMail, you know the importance of tagging your mail.  While we wait for Microsoft to offer such features in Outlook, clearly, creating a thousand folders is not the answer.  What’s needed is an efficient way to separate the actionables from the archivable email from the yet-to-read email.<\/p>\n

Richard Kuo’s essay on “Optimizing Your Life<\/a>” also offers really helpful advice on the subject :<\/p>\n

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Let’s take a look at a typical inbox. The problem with an inbox where every e-mail stays in the inbox by default is that your commitments (aka the stuff you need to be taking care of to avoid irritating other people) are completely intermingled with e-mails that you’ve already taken care of and other e-mails that you never ever need to look at again.<\/p>\n

I recommend setting aside specific times of the day to deal with e-mail when you’re already breaking flow anyway.  Usually, that means when you get into work, after a meal, and perhaps, right before you leave.<\/p>\n

Move all your existing e-mail out of your Inbox and into the Action Required or Reference folders.<\/p>\n

One of the big principles of this system is keeping your Inbox empty.  So, if you have stuff already sitting in your Inbox, you need to move it out.  Decide whether each e-mail needs to be acted on, and either move it to Action Required or Reference as necessary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Using a combination of techniques presented here, I was able to clear up the clutter and bring the mails in my Inbox to under 20!  And, it’s staying that way. <\/p>\n

If you’re as swamped with emails as I am, reading insights from these two links can change your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re familiar with GMail, you know the importance of tagging your mail.  While we wait for Microsoft to offer such features in Outlook, clearly, creating a thousand folders is not the answer.  What’s needed is an efficient way to separate the actionables from the archivable email from the yet-to-read email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-life","tag-technology"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}