The Inbox Zero Challenge

Gamify managing your inbox, reach inbox zero within minutesThanks for the hunt @thisiskp_ ! I got some really amazing feedback, and here's a bit of context on why I made this doc.

My personal journey towards Inbox Zero Being at Inbox Zero is a key piece of my mental health. When my inbox is at zero, I am more present, open to new ideas, and attentive. It even carries over to physical health ー I eat better, sleep better, and I am more likely to maintain my exercise regimen. And for me, the Inbox Zero process starts with measurement.

As Peter Drucker says, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

I have been tracking my inbox count for almost a decade now ー originally with a manually updated spreadsheet, and gradually with more automated techniques (more on this below). Over time, I’ve made many optimizations, from small to large, to help me achieve this goal more often. Everything from changing my daily email schedule, to refining my filter rules, to sharing this chart with my admin and telling her “if this number crosses 200, cancel all my meetings so I can catch up!”

An automated solution to put your Inbox Zero measurement on autopilot. My previous systems were tedious and fragile, so last year I decided to revamp them. I’m sharing this free doc so anyone who is interested can use a similar framework for reaching Inbox Zero. It’s likely no surprise that I decided to do this in Coda. I used the Gmail pack integration to make a doc that automates the whole process. It’s quite simple. Every hour, this doc logs my inbox count. While you can certainly use the graph view, when Wordle came out, I was inspired by their visualizations and found that it was a more visceral way to track my progress. Each day, you will be graded with either a (reached Inbox Zero), (got close to Inbox Zero), or (far from Inbox Zero), and you can determine the inbox count thresholds for what constitutes a and depending on the usual nature of your inbound emails.

So, here’s the challenge: how long of a streak can you build to maintain Inbox Zero?