EPISODE 044 - Organisation: How do I implement a zero inbox strategy?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidel and our topic of the day is how do I implement a zero inbox strategy? So first of all, what is zero inbox and what does it mean? So zero inbox means you have no read email in your inbox. So it means every time you read an email, you process the content, you plan your to-do's, you forward the email, you whatever, and then you delete it from your inbox. And that also means if you want to work with the idea of zero inbox, you will not constantly check your emails on your phone, on your desk, constantly switch to Outlook if there's something new, turn off all the notifications, all the symbols, all the pop-ups. So that's that. what it means to have or to work like the idea of zero inbox. So it means you read your emails, you process and you'll delete it. And it also means you move away all things what could lead you to watch your Outlook or open your Outlook. And for all those guys who are not working with Outlook, please change it to the preferred email program you are using. I'm a Microsoft guy, so I use Outlook, I use Teams. So every time we mentioned those apps, please replace it with your favorite tools. But it's mostly the same meaning. if you want to live the zero inbox strategy, you have to remove all the distractions, what leads you to use Outlook. And this is, for me, for a long time, it was the calendar. And happily, this is This is now usable in the Teams client. So now I can use my private calendar and my business calendar and overlap those calendars in the Teams client. I don't need to open Outlook to see my calendar again. And that was a really huge improvement for my zero inbox, not using Outlook on a regular basis strategy. So that's what it means to do zero inbox. And how to get there? Of course,

Michael Seidl: close your outlook or close your outlook app, close your outlook browser, whatever you're using and move away all those things what leads you to outlook to use it. So don't store emails for further information in your outlook because then you have to go to outlook to find those emails and then the little number in your inbox will lead you to or bring you to check your inbox. Okay. So move away all those emails. you want to keep for later, move them away from Outlook. And the second one is what always brings me to Outlook is the calendar. And as I said before, this is happily now available in the Teams client. So I really can close Outlook also when checking my calendar and constantly check my calendar to see what is next and what appointments and when is a free space for this. So I often need my calendar. so this is a huge improvement to now use that in Teams. So close your outlook is the first one. The second one is define your dates or your time slots during the day where you only, and that's the only time you check your inbox. In my example, I do this in the morning. I do this before or after lunch. It depends a little bit. And I do it before I stop working. Okay. Some, some, someone will tell, might tell you don't stop working. But usually when I leave my office, I check the emails the last time today. So I have three slots and of course it depends on how many emails you, you get. It depends on how you use email in your workflow.

Michael Seidl: And of course, for those guys who are using emails as the main... work communication like service desk, like help desk or anything or customer service. Zero Inbox might not be the right tool for you. Sorry for that. But the rest of the 70-80 % I think you can use Zero Inbox. So first one, Outlook should be closed. Second one is find your spots or your time slots during the day where you check your inbox and that's the only time you check your inbox. And as I said, it depends on the amount of emails and maybe on the topics, what you're working in, on how long does it take to process your emails. So maybe on Monday, it's a little bit more, maybe on Friday, a little bit less, maybe after holiday, of course more. But usually I think it will be fine to use 10 or up to 15 minutes each slot, three times a day to process your emails. Maybe at the beginning a little bit longer to implement the workflow, but then I think it is good to have only 10 minutes. But as I said, it depends on as you need it. It depends on the email and everything. And the third thing is the workflow. So what are you doing in that time slot you blocked to process your inbox? First of all, I am really confident that multitasking doesn't work. But that's also one thing I learned in the last weeks or months to only have apps or programs, whatever you call it, open on your computer. What do we need right now? So in our case,

Michael Seidl: I need Outlook, of course, because I need to check my inboxes. The second one is my zero box, my single source of shit. We use Notion for everything. Also for my tasks and to-dos and projects and so on. So I have one side, my Outlook inbox. On the other side of my monitor is my Notion client, where I need to control and store everything. So then I read the mails from top to bottom. because then if there is already a conversation for a specific topic, I get the latest information and I can decide and I get the first thing is decision is do I need to do something or is it just an information or does anyone else needs to do something? If someone else needs to do something, I will forward it. I will maybe check him on teams, whatever. I need to clear that. And they will forward the information and the to do to that person who needs to take care of. In the most cases, I also for those things someone else needs to do, I make a wait to do in my list and applying it for if you agree he's solving it or he's responding me till Friday, then I will have a wait to do till Friday. We also attach the email. to the to do and I have a very clear phrase or title of to do what I expect. Okay. So I create a wait to do and attach the email to that to do in Notion and delete the emails because I don't need that email again. Okay. I have planned the to do. I have attached the email for any circumstances. If I need some more information, maybe I forgot something, whatever. So everything is done so I can delete the email. Second one is if it's just an information, then it's fine. Maybe I need to store something in the file system on a SharePoint, on OneDrive or Notion, whatever, then it's okay. Maybe it's something I need to do for my next customer appointment. So we work with our customer highly in regular appointments and our customers

Michael Seidl: think they love it to just send us emails for the next appointment and we keep track about everything we plan it, we do it in the project list and everything. So that's more like an information. Third one is I need to do something. And then I need to decide, can I do it immediately? So maybe it takes only one or two minutes and then I can directly resolve it and do or finish the task the email brings to me. Then I will do it. It depends on my slot, my time and everything. But if I can do it in a very short time, maybe one, two, maybe three minutes, it depends that I will really do it and immediately do it. If there is a to-do for me and it takes longer, I will make a to-do note in my notion, in my projects, whatever, maybe customer project, maybe a private project, maybe company projects. Maybe also have an inbox for my to-dos where I constantly plan those to-dos related to priorities. But then I need to define a new to-do. Two important things is... directly understand the email, directly define the to do, what is really the next step and write those words into the to do title. Don't write anything, read and understand and push that email into it. Because then you have to read those email. twice or three times and that's not the idea of C-Rainbox. the idea is to read the email once, understand, define the to-dos, plan it and delete the email. So if you plan a to-do out of an email, understand the email, define the next steps or the next step and write a to-do with those step into your to-do list. Attach the email to that to-do. That's mainly what I do because

Michael Seidl: there might be some information I forgot, I misunderstand, whatever, then I don't need to go back to Outlook and search for that email. Because in the most cases I will not find it because I deleted it. But that's the idea to not have a store any information in the Outlook client. So then I write a to-do in my to-do list and attach the email and directly write the next concrete step what I have to do. that in that case. And that's the magic. Okay, it's a really complicated it's not rocket science. But it really helps to stay focused during the day to not being distracted by emails and not have or not check the emails constantly in every minute or every few minutes and read to the same emails over and over again. without making any progress. That's the main thing. And it's really distracting you a lot if there is a pop-up of your email, if there is a direct count with the numbers in your inboxes. It might stress you if you see 13 unread emails constantly when you go to your calendar. So do not even open Outlook. Close it and only open it during those inbox checks. So to summarize, Close your Outlook program, define your time slots during the day to check your inboxes and follow the workflow to process your emails. Is it for you? Do it or plan it. If it's for someone else, delegate it and maybe make a note for later. If it's just for information, then store this information anywhere where it belongs and that's it. So I wish you a happy Monday, a nice week and stay productive and bye bye.