A tidy inbox
What helps create momentum in your day?
For me, staring at a tidy inbox helps to move the needle for my productivity.
For years, I would cringe when I’d open up my email inbox.
Thousands upon thousands of emails staring back at me with no rhyme or reason as to why they were even there in the first place.
Well, I did sign up for a lot of free shit so that does explain some of it, at least.
Regardless, it was nearly impossible to keep track of the various important conversations I was having at the time based on the deluge of crap that popped in every 25 seconds.
By important conversations, I’m referring to messages related to client work, promotional and networking opportunities and personal matters.
And, it became overwhelming to the point that if I didn’t immediately answer the message, I would simply forget about it.
Not exactly a productive way to run a business and live life, I know. It’s crazy to think that that’s how it was, but, the stress over this was real.
One day, I was online and came across a video from a productivity expert who shared several insights related to clearing out clutter in your life in order to make room in your mind for more creative and purposeful work.
One of the topics that he discussed was managing your inbox as a way to help manage your life.
Hmmm, interesting…I leaned in.
He shared how he transformed his inbox from over 100,000 emails to just a small handful by creating a system that organized the bulk of the emails outside of the main inbox so only the time-sensitive and critical conversations were left in view.
Hmmm, interesting…I jotted down a ton of notes.
He then mentioned how this process lifted a tremendous weight off his shoulders and opened up his mind because the overwhelm of looking at an endless scroll of crap in his inbox was gone. As a result, he felt more effective at managing not only his business affairs, but also his personal ones, too.
Hmmm, interesting…I decided to take the leap and do the same.
This was a massive undertaking that took several days to complete…
I’m not going to say that this was a joyful project by any stretch of the imagination. Needless to say, there was a lot of cursing under my breath as I proceeded to cull through this disaster area of an inbox.
But, as the hours passed and the curse words flew, progress was being made.
In addition to creating a tagging system in my gmail account, and deleting thousands upon thousands of emails, I also unsubscribed to dozens of email lists that I haven’t even engaged once.
Once the dust settled, the clutter was completely gone.
And the weight of this former monstrosity of an inbox was now lifted off my shoulders for good.
On any given day, I’ll have 10, maybe 20, emails that relate to active conversations, and they’re all color coded and tagged in a way that helps categorize their importance and area of interest in my life and business.
So yeah, I went the other way with it and got super granular and nerdy :)
While this inbox win may seem small in the grand scheme, it’s actually a big deal.
In the pursuit of growing and evolving as a person and business owner, minimizing distractions and clutter in order to foster creativity is an all-day, everyday and everywhere thing for me.
As a result, by eliminating this email issue, it no longer offers a chance to gunk up my mind with useless noise.
I encourage you to identify the roadblocks and speed bumps that throw you off your productivity game and eliminate them in order to help you focus on what’s really important:
The work you do to help transform those you serve.
Despite the challenges in making these changes, whether it involves an inbox housecleaning or not, the juice is, ultimately, worth the squeeze.