Inbox Zero: Increase your follow-up-ness

I recently switched to Airmail for a better overall mail experience (this is a story for another day, but in summation: still a bit young, but I've found better Gmail integration, and nice features that better suit my needs).

But now that I can archive email easier (just a swipe!), I've decided to give "Inbox Zero" another try.

Inbox Zero simply means keeping your email inbox empty. On a deeper level, it means slightly different things to different people, but for me, it has helped me be better at following up with people.

Often, I'm working on a project and I get an email that I can't address right away... and then I forget it.

Now that I'm archiving my email after I'm done with it, it means that email that I'm not done with remains in my inbox. Once I finish following up with it, I archive it.

Since doing this for a couple weeks, I haven't yet missed following up on anything, something that happens from time to time, unfortunately (usually minor things are forgotten, but sometimes it's more important things).

Why don't you just use a "To Do" list (something even built into Airmail)?

The big difference for me is that doing the Inbox Zero approach, I don't have to do anything to create a "follow-up." If I had a To Do list, I'd have to add something to it any time I needed to remind myself of something. The way I'm doing it now, if I do nothing, then it is always there to remind me. This makes a huge difference for me at least.

If you occasionally forget to follow-up with someone, or just want to cut down on clutter in your inbox, I suggest trying "Inbox Zero." It feels good not to forget things, and besides, things with Zero in its name are just cooler.