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by pmarreck 2968 days ago
Was immediately turned off by his devotion to the ridiculously overrated Inbox Zero.

Inbox Zero is a gross waste of time and essentially OCD masturbation. Using tools (like filters, or a better email client with smart prioritization such as https://sparkmailapp.com/) to prioritize important emails is far superior and has zero ongoing maintenance cost in time:

https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/worlds-dumbest-time-manag...

If you want to actually get productive, get RescueTime: https://www.rescuetime.com/

There is a very good reason why the Spark iOS app doesn't even bother showing your unread count.
4 comments
WaxProlix 2968 days ago
Sounds a lot like the Getting Things Done approach, which is a little culty as a community but has some reasonable advice. One of those nuggets is "touch it once," using the "four Ds" - Do, Delete, Delegate, Defer. I've been basically using it as an approach for a while and it's great when I stick to it.

It's not in opposition to using filters and such though afaik; all of my build/jira/notifications/updates/forum posts/etc email goes to various buckets and is immediately forgotten.

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sametmax 2968 days ago
I am more productive with zero inbox than other tools. And since neither of us can prove we are right, let's accept it's just an opinionated tool, and it's a matter of taste.
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pmarreck 2967 days ago
> And since neither of us can prove we are right

Actually, that's false. Use https://www.rescuetime.com/ and compare with people who don't use this system, divide by the number of incoming emails per person, and you'll know in short order.

Empirical data is a wonderful tool to find truth.

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enraged_camel 2968 days ago
Agreed on Inbox Zero.

I used it for a while, until I realized that there is tremendous value in being as responsive to emails as possible. Most people don't expect replies to emails, so they tend to be delighted when you respond immediately. It's a great way to set yourself apart from your coworkers or competitors.

So now I have my email inbox open in its own monitor, and I glance at it when a new email arrives. If it requires a response, I respond right away, even if it is something like "OK, let me look into this and get back to you." People really, really like knowing that you are 100% attentive.

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pmarreck 2967 days ago
> People really, really like knowing that you are 100% attentive.

I can explain this. As your reliability to someone else dips below 100%, your effective utility to them drops far more drastically. (Imagine Google was up only 95% of the time.) I only realized this rather late in life for some reason (although I was already doing it intuitively). It seems to apply to friendships, personal relationships, and work relationships... as well as services. Basically any interaction.

Instant response = reliability. That makes you more valuable to other people.

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kchr 2967 days ago
"Inbox zero" is just another name for "only show pending tasks" and translates into any planning solution that offers filtering by arbitrary criteria (like pending/done)...
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