I finally did it. I emptied my inbox! Well, I emptied one of my email inboxes. But to my credit the email inbox manages 3 email accounts. It took some time but I deleted, responded and filed over 700 messages.

This is part of my new goal to improve efficiency in managing my email. The first part involved consolidating email so I didn’t have to check several accounts. I have 6 active email accounts and it takes time log into each one. I got a GMail account which manages 3 accounts, and 2 others I forward to the final account. I tried to add my pop email to GMail, but for some reason it won’t work. Even so, I only have to log into two different places to manage 6 email accounts. In this case, less is better than more.

The next step was to deal with the inbox. GMail doesn’t use folders. Instead it uses Labels which I didn’t like at first because it takes two steps to get it out of the inbox. However, it has grown on me because you can put multiple labels on a single email. This allows for better filing and access. Then you just use archive to get it out of the inbox. I currently have about 20 labels.

I have found the most challenging aspect of emptying my email box is determining what to do with an email. What label should it have? Can I delete it? Will I be sorry if I do? And if I sort into a folder or archive, will I remember its there and where to find it?

My answer has been to respond to the email first and then sort it as opposed to sorting into project folders to deal with later. It makes keeping the inbox emtpy harder because I can’t always deal with email the moment I access it. But if its out of sight its out of mind, so leaving it in the inbox until I deal with it is best for me.

Now I’m on to my business account… I have 530 emails to get out of the inbox.