How to get to inbox zero

Most e-mail address users think they know how to navigate through this "dreaded" medium of communication, but that's it ... they think they know!

It's as if a person thinks a word in a language foreign to them is pronounced a certain way, just because they utter some sound that resembles it!

So, as for e-mail... when I "accidentally" see most people's inboxes, I see something like this:

Inbox (42,590)

Yikes, as mine usually says this:

Inbox (0)

Although I am a border-line "loner", I do get several dozen e-mails per day from newsletters and what-not!

So, do others not know anything about:

• deleting?
• archiving?
• snoozing?

Most long-time Gmail users still somehow elude the last two features !

When an inbox has an e-mail count reaching five (or six) figures, the situation seems downright hopeless! Going through all e-mails would take forever, but it does not necessarily entail an impossible Herculean task!

Deleting past e-mails

This first step of deleting past e-mails might actually get rid of thousands of e-mails all at once:

• find e-mail addresses that typically send out "disposable content"
  • their content would almost always have dated content
    • e.g. "sign up for this offer by the end of 2016!"
  • typically, they come from online stores and "world news" newsletters
• use the e-mail client's search functionality by querying the e-mail address and then delete all e-mails that appear

This process won't happen overnight - it could take several months! After several iterations of this, however, the inbox will clear itself out :)

Filtering present e-mails

Once everything clears out, go through the inbox at least every night:

• delete e-mails that won't ever matter
• archive e-mails that you have read but will refer to later
• snooze e-mails that you will need to "action" for a later date and time
  • you can always "re-snooze"

Nothing should remain in the inbox at the end of an e-mail checking session!

Preparing for future e-mails

When your inbox gets cleared out each time you check it, it makes things easier for the next time ... your inbox will later only have:

• new e-mails
• the things on which you procrastinated (the be-snoozed!)

Anything old will remain in the archive or in the trash...

Eventually, you will even wait for the next e-mail and tackle it down with dominance!