Email is a problem for me: I check it too often and do too little about it when I check it, making for an unwieldy inbox. I think I’ve come up with a simple rule (it’s been working for me so far) that will help me beat my inbox:
The inbox will be smaller each time I check my mail.
This rule has two desirable economic properties:
work will get done each time I check email (in the form of answering, filing away, or deleting messages), even if it’s only one email. Eventually this will force me to deal with messages that are over a year old.
I will check email less often, as there is now a price for doing so
I’ll let you know how it’s going next week.
© 2011 Scott Wiersdorf