Inbox Zero HOW TO BECOME
an Email Ninja Your email management process will never be the same again PRESENTED BY: MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Michael Reynolds About Michael: •
President / CEO of SpinWeb • Cellist • Sushi connoisseur • Tennis player • Marketing/tech nerd • www.spinweb.net

Special Thanks Concepts pioneered by
DAVID ALLEN and MERLIN MANN.

The Problem

Inbox Count How Many Messages
(would you guess) are sitting in your inbox right now: !• 0-20 • 21-100 • 101-500 • 500-1,000 • Over 1,000… help!

Email is Just a Medium
Managing Email Means: !• Convert actions • Process to zero • Only 4 folders

Working in Contexts Context Includes:
!• Writing • Processing • On the phone • Running errands • In meetings

Multi-tasking
… is a myth

Keep Email Closed Unless you
are acting on it

How Scary Is It To
Close Your Email For Hours at a Time: !• Sound like a nice break to me! • It might freak me out but I’ll give it a try • No way! What if I miss something important?!

How to Act on Email
Delete (or archive) Delegate Respond Defer Do

Delete Ask: !• Will you
ever really do anything about it? • If not, delete (or archive) it • Don’t feel bad about being realistic • Any modern email system can handle a large archive of email (i.e. Google Mail, MS Exchange) • Use search to recover archived email

Delegate Is it more efficient
for someone else to deal with it? If so, delegate it, CC yourself, and place a copy in your “Waiting For” folder.

Respond Can you respond in
2 minutes or less? If so, go ahead and respond. Then delete or archive.

Defer When to Defer: !•
Will it take longer than 2 minutes to deal with? • If so, defer it • Place it in “Action Required” or “Someday Maybe” folder • Place it on a todo list (then delete/archive)

Warning! Do not let “Action
Required” get out of control!

Do Can you act on
this message in 2 minutes or less? Then DO IT! ! Then, delete/archive.

Email Actions Choose One: !•
Delete/archive • Delegate • Respond • Defer • Do

Four Folders No More, No
Less: !• Action Required • Archived • Someday/Maybe • Waiting For

Aaaaaahhhhhh…

Mobile? Considerations: !• Ok to
process inbox • Make sure mail is synced • Can make it easy to cheat • Catch up later

Turn Off Notifications! Don’t let
set your phone to constantly blow up with new email notifications. You’ll be in a state of constant distraction.

Work in Offline Mode Eliminate
distractions of incoming email while you work through folders.

Migration to Inbox Zero Steps:
!• Create your 4 folders • Organize all other folders into them • Delete other folders • Freak out • Set aside a block of time to process Inbox • Enjoy your state of Zen

How Scary is the Thought
of Eliminating Your Folders? Freak Out Level: !• No big deal… when do we start? • Not sure if I feel comfortable with this • Yikes! I'm twitching just thinking about it! • I’ve already logged off of this webinar because I simply can’t imagine a world without my 87 folders

Multiple Accounts? No problem. Use
the same system for each account.

Inbox Zero is Not a
Perfect System It’s a state of mind

Go Forth

Questions Contact information: !• Michael
Reynolds: michael@spinweb.net