Inboxification

We live in an age of abundance. We are flooded with news from social media, newsletters, RSS readers and instant messaging app. I want to share my technique of managing this. I treat every source of information as an inbox. Let me list down the inboxes in my current life:

• Gmail (Official and Personal)

• Reeder (RSS feeds reader)

• Twitter

• Pocket Casts (app for listening to podcasts)

• WhatsApp (for communicating with family and friends)

• Slack (for being part of some interesting online communities)

• Facebook / Instagram (sometimes you get interesting articles in these)

• Browser Tabs (tabs opened in my desktop or mobile or tablet)

There are four important tools that help my workflow:

• To do list manager (Things)

• Read-it-later app (Instapaper)

• Calendar (Google Calendar)

• Note taking app (Evernote)

I try to do an active triage two or three times a day. Any item in my above inboxes goes through this decision:

• Check if I can act on it in 2 minutes. 

  • Is it a mail, that requires my reply and can I do it in two minutes, then I reply.

  • Is it an article in my RSS feed that can be read in two minutes, then I read it.

• If it cannot be done in 2 minutes, it either goes into:

  • To do list (or) An event or appointment in my calendar.

  • If it is a long article, it goes into my Instapaper queue

I make a point to do this declutter and maintain digital hygiene in all my inboxes. Even though I may not declutter and clear it out every day, my Saturdays are marked with a recurring task for this.

The biggest advantage that I get out of this inbox-zero is mental peace and clarity. My to-do list is always up to date on what needs to be done for the day. It also reduces the probability of tasks slipping out of my hands.

I fully rely on the four main tools that I mentioned. I try to sweep my mind out of everything to do into these digital tools. I got the inspiration for such thing from David Allen, who has a nice way of putting this as:

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

I am far from perfect in my workflow or optimal productivity. But leveraging the superpowers of the devices present our pockets and bags, are a starting point.