Inbox Zero everywhere

Fast communication is a competitive advantage

Sam Altman believes that great founders reply fast. “I wrote a little program to look at how quickly our best founders answer my emails versus our bad founders. It was a difference of minutes versus days on average response times.” I tend to agree and think the same applies to most knowledge workers. The advantage of fast replies accumulates over time.

Later-stage founders or executives at large companies often work with assistants to monitor their inboxes, but as an early-stage founder, you may not have that luxury. When I started my first company, I struggled with inbox overload and forgotten replies. That all changed when I learned about Inbox Zero and started following it almost religiously. Now all important messages are answered quickly and I feel in full control of my communications.

Inbox Zero for faster, stress-free communication

Inbox zero is an approach to email management that aims to completely empty an inbox once a day. Here is a quote from The Great CEO Within that captures its essence:

Each day, process every single item in your Inbox. If the action takes <2 minutes to complete, do it immediately. If not, then write down what the required action is, and place it on one of the Getting Things Done lists

Why is Inbox Zero so effective? Because following it correctly ensures that inboxes are not cluttered up, no tasks are missed, and that relevant people receive speedy replies. Moreover, it provides an unparalleled piece of mind for its users.  If you have 50 emails in your inbox, it is easy for an email below the visible fold to get lost and not get answered in a timely manner. If there are zero emails, you are certain that everything important has been processed. Being successful at Inbox Zero means strong prioritization. Many messages will simply get archived. 

How to implement Inbox Zero

To first start with Inbox Zero you need to declutter your inbox.  

• Respond to any remaining important messages: Then archive the rest to start with a clean slate.

• Unsubscribe from unnecessary email lists: Remove distracting subscriptions and avoid automated advertising cluttering your inbox. Use a service like unroll.me to speed up the process

• Set up a system for newsletters: Use a separate inbox for newsletters or auto-forward them to a reading app for later. 

After setting up the foundation, you can follow the daily Inbox Zero Routine below. 

• Respond immediately to messages that take less than 2 minutes: Quick responses prevent minor items from building up.

• Archive non-essential emails: If an email doesn’t require a response but may be useful later, archive it.

• Remove spam or irrelevant emails: Delete spam immediately

• Add newsletters or other articles to a reading list: Decide on a designated spot for content that you want to read at a later date, store it there and archive the email

• Add longer tasks to a to-do list: If an email requires an action that takes more than 2 minutes, add it to your task list and archive the email to clear it from your inbox. 

• Pause the process for urgent tasks: If you notice a crucial email that requires a longer processing time, pause the process and focus on it immediately even if a reply takes longer than 2 minutes. The threshold for this should be high. 

You get the gist. Do this for every single email in your inbox at least once a day. If you’re in a sales role or currently fundraising, you may want to do this multiple times a day.

Expanding Inbox Zero to all Communication Channels

While applying Inbox Zero to work email is a great start, extending it to all relevant communication channels brings even more clarity. If your customers tend to write you on WhatsApp, Discord or LinkedIn you need to extend it to those channels too. My private life significantly improved since I started a similar process with my WhatsApp messages. Following the system is arguably more difficult if there is no proper archive feature which is why I strongly prefer messaging services that offer it. For example, as of the writing of this article, iMessage does not offer archiving and LinkedIn has destroyed their archiving system a while back. So I like to move communication from those channels to other channels that I can apply Inbox Zero to. 

I currently do Inbox Zero to my work email, private email, important Slack workspaces, and my WhatsApp every single day. I also look at LinkedIn and less important Slack spaces multiple times a week. It is important to reiterate that is does not mean I reply to all messages every day. Private messages that are not urgent I often batch to a task on the weekend where I reply to everyone at once. 

Helpful tips for Inbox Zero

• Make it easy to remember: Create a recurring daily task called inbox zero and add the relevant inboxes as a subtask. Alternatively, you can work with a blocker in your calendar during which you process every piece in every relevant inbox.
  

• Use the right email service: For your email you might want to look into a service like Superhuman that is targeted towards professionals who want to reply to emails fast. However, traditional gmail works very well for me.
  

• Learn the short cuts: Learning the short cuts will lower the friction of going through your inbox. Here is a list of selected gmail shortcuts. 

• Recognize patterns of failure: Do you notice that a specific type of email often trips you up? Make sure to find a system to process them. For example, if you often delay replies because you’re unsure about scheduling, create a habit of proposing 2-3 available time slots within your allocated meeting time to expedite the process.
  

• Use templates for common responses: If you repeatedly send the same type of response, consider setting up templates to speed up the process.
  

• Use AI to improve your emails: Consider using ChatGPT or some other service to proofread and improve important emails
  

• Practice Decision-Making Discipline: Train yourself to make quick decisions on emails. If an email doesn’t require immediate action, decide on an appropriate action (archive, to-do list, or response) without lingering too long.
  

• Plan for being out of office: Have someone else monitor your inbox if you are out of office. For shorter periods, consider adding an automated out-of-office reply and mention an emergency contact for urgent requests
  

• Delegate effectively: If you have people on the team who can handle specific tasks better, forward the email to them with context and the expectation that they take care of it from there. 
  

• Filter out the noise: If there are regular emails that you want to receive but not read when they are coming in, consider filtering them out and have them skip your inbox.
  

• Reflect and refine regularly: Regularly assess what’s working and what’s not. If certain types of emails are consistently causing delays, look for ways to streamline

Using Inbox Zero will significantly improve your life

Since using Inbox Zero in all my relevant messaging channels, my response time and reply rate have significantly improved. I feel considerably less stressed about keeping up with everything. It is not a perfect system but the best one I have come across. If you want to reply faster and feel good about it, give Inbox Zero a shot. 

A great way to start is by reading and following this article which started it all for me. It leads you through the process of doing Inbox Zero from 0 to a finished system. 

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