Email Zero

Due to my sense of neatness, I try to maintain a state of "email zero" - a state where my Inbox has no outstanding emails needing attention. (Due to a quirk in Outlook, I actually find it beneficial to have a single placeholder email in there. But that's a detail that doesn't affect the underlying principle.)

As a result of this, my first task each morning is to deal with any emails that have arrived during the night. Many of these are routine and can just be deleted, some just want read and then filed, some need a reply (in which case I try to reply immediately). And then there are some that require some sort of action that, for whatever reason, can't be performed immediately.

For the most part, I deal with these by translating the email into a Task, then clearing the email from my Inbox - having recorded the Task I'll not forget it, but I'll get to it later.

However, it doesn't do to be too dogmatic about things. Just as any good filing system should have a "Miscellaneous" or "Other" section, for things that just don't go anywhere else but are sufficiently unique not to warrant their own section, any process for dealing with things is stronger, not weaker, if it includes a mechanism for dealing with exceptional cases that just don't fit. Sometimes, very occasionally, there's an email that requires some action, the action can't be dealt with immediately, but where it's better not to translate it into a task. And that means that sometimes, very occasionally, an email will hang around, and Email Zero will remain elusive.

About six months ago, I received one such email - it needed an action, there was a fairly detailed set of instructions for that action (so turning it into a Task was a pain), so I left it. "I'll get a suitable file tonight and do it tomorrow," thought I.

This was not the great plan I had thought. I finally remembered the appropriate file on Monday, dealt with the email yesterday, and thus was able to file it (in my "from 2018" folder, no less!), and reached Email Zero after a mere six months.

Which is perhaps not the most exciting story, but it was my big achievement of yesterday so I figured it was worthy of note...