Inbox Zero
Ever since I started building my own company I have never been able to maintain my inbox at zero unread messages for more than a week.
I know that it’s possible, but I just haven’t figured it out yet. It takes discipline, an extensive set of Gmail filters and an awesome email application.
Another thing that really helps is delegating some of your tasks to more capable people. You can mark some email messages as read because you know that someone else will take care of it.
I was happy with my Mac’s Mail application until I discovered that it sucked at storage. I use three email accounts and Mail decided to store more than 20GB in my tiny Macbook Air!
I was happy with my iPhone’s Mail application until I discovered Mailbox.
I was happy with Mailbox until Dropbox decided to kill it.
I was happy with Polymail until it started sending duplicate email messages from my account, I reported the bug and never heard back from them.
I’m now happy with Outlook (the only Microsoft app in my life) for iOS and Airmail 2 (it’s paid but it’s worth it!) for Mac OS.
To be honest, I still use Gmail web every now and then, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.
I have noticed that I really need the gestures feature in order to handle email messages as quickly as possible. If an application doesn’t have it, I won’t use it.
Even with that, I have not managed to keep my inbox zero for more than a week.
It’s fine. I’ve learned to live with this. I don’t really need inbox zero.
These days I’m happy to keep my inbox under 100.