Email bankruptcy...

Rosanna and I have been making some big changes in our lives over the past week or so. Most of these changes are aimed at being more productive, positive, and available people. Among them is something that was pointed out to me by John Gruber’s Rethinking Email in a piece by John Davidson entitled, “Effective Email Bankruptcy.” While I will go into detail in a later post about the changes we are making for our lives, I want to highlight what I am doing with email.

I’ve got over 1,000 emails in my inboxes. I’m not sure which ones I should delete, which ones I should respond to, which ones I should archive, etc. Even then, if I took the time to do that, I would be looking at an equally daunting task of how to categorize and sort all of these emails.

It just shouldn’t be done, not with what I’m up against the next two months. So, for my own peace of mind, I am declaring “email bankruptcy.” Basically, I am taking all of the messages in my inbox and archiving them. This will empty out my inbox and give me a fighting chance of starting to organize what I receive from here on out.

With my iPhone, email and Facebook really are the two best ways to get a hold of me. With empty inboxes, I think this will become a reality.

Gruber put it this way:

Under my previous “system”, I let them pile up in my inboxes, under the assumption that some day I’d get around to answering many of them. Under the new system, if I don’t respond immediately after reading them, they go right into my archive. Out of sight, out of mind.

So, if you have emailed me or Facebook messaged me lately, I’ll let James Davidson say what I would like to say to you.

In the meantime, I’d like to try to get back to that DMZ box with all that old mail in there. But I’m pretty sure that I’m pursuing an exercise in wishful thinking. Even if I can get back to it, realistically I’m not going to be able to do more than cherry pick. So, here’s your chance. If you sent me something and I let it drop on the floor, and if you still care, ping me again. I’ll do my best to take care of it one way or another this time around.

Tune in soon for some strategies that Rosanna and I are implementing to better get a handle on the tasks we have each day.