[lincolnq]

Another recommendation I would make (either to get to zero or get yourself to stay there) is to pre-commit to your goal using Beeminder (http://www.beeminder.com), which will make you pay money if you don't hit a target each day. (Don't worry, it only counts "read" emails so you don't have to worry about emails coming in and causing you to go off track)

[graeme]

Is there a good "getting started with beeminder" guide? I tried Beeminder, and had no idea how to use it.

[zck]

Last month, they published a New User's Guide: http://blog.beeminder.com/newbees/ .