The Zen of Zero Mail
You too can have a zero mail inbox, if you choose to. I chose to go zero mail in my inbox when I first joined Microsoft years ago, and I'm glad I did. With a single glance, I know whether I have new mail to deal with. I never have to scroll to see what my next actions are. At a more basic level, an empty inbox feels good. I thought it was just me, but others say the same.
Proven Over Time
It was tough when I first joined Microsoft. My inbox drove me. Eventually, I learned how to drive my inbox. I studied the masters around me. I also studied those that failed (there's no failure, only lessons.) I refined my approach over the years. Since then, I've successfully taught my mentees and others how to spend less time on administration and more time on results. Now I'm sharing with you.
Slides
Here's a short deck that steps you through and highlights the keys:
Note
Normally, I work with my mentees one-on-one and tailor the approach for their particular scenario. It's a learning by doing approach. While I've blogged about clearing your inbox before, this is an experiment in how effectively I can share techniques in slides. If it works out, I'll do additional slides on focused topics. The more I can reduce friction around sharing, the more I can share. If you have tips or tricks for improving my slide sharing approach, send my way.
Comments
Anonymous
January 14, 2008
PingBack from http://geeklectures.info/2008/01/14/the-zen-of-zero-mail/Anonymous
January 14, 2008
PingBack from http://msdn.blogsforu.com/msdn/?p=3724Anonymous
January 14, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 14, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 14, 2008
Hi J.D. I am a PM at Intuit. I have been reading your blog for a long time. Your presentation communicated our points clearly. The screenshots were absolutely helpful to convey your msg. I really appreciate that you share your best practices with outside MS. I hope I see more PPT. Regards, KashAnonymous
January 14, 2008
Before J.D. I read about a similar idea at 43 folders: http://www.43folders.com/izero Clearly great minds come to the same solutions to similar problems. I have done the following in order to deal with the information overload. I have the following folders in my email: inbox (empty most of the time) outbox (all the mail I have ever sent) reference (catch all) action (my actionable items) reply (emails I intend to reply to) I batch process my emails twice daily and stick what is in the inbox into the correct bucket. Then I us my action and reply emails as tasks I need to get done at a later time from the batching. This is the stuff that I will need more time than 2 minutes to complete. Dennis GrovesAnonymous
January 15, 2008
Great to hear Kash - I'll continue to share more slideware / PPTs. Dennis - I agree -- all roads lead to the same town. That's why I'm a fan of patterns and principle-based solutions.Anonymous
January 16, 2008
Great thoughts. I was starting to feel that I failing at the basics will take me also. I tried your approach - key mails & daily tickler gave me a fresh view over my inbox :)Anonymous
January 17, 2008
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January 29, 2008
Are you ahead of the game, or falling behind? Are you getting the results you want? As a follow on toAnonymous
January 29, 2008
Are you ahead of the game, or falling behind? Are you getting the results you want? As a follow on toAnonymous
February 10, 2008
Hey J.D., I too have an effective system in place for maintaining 0 undread mail. I'd be interested in your thoughts about it: http://blogs.msdn.com/noahc/archive/2007/10/15/rising-above-the-email-swarm.aspxAnonymous
February 13, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 27, 2008
导读今天发现了这篇非常精彩的，内容超级丰富的文章，实在忍不住，转载于此。 原文地址：http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/archive/2008/10/13/effective...Anonymous
May 08, 2016
I'm back baby. The university wants me. After all this time. Been thinking about ya. Without you or your skills I would never get this. Take care J.D Meier. Always...