Getting things done - cleaning up email

I just reduced the contents of my Gmail Inbox from 2,000++ messages to less than 200 (now down to 50, as of Aug. 5). My target is zero and I'm almost there. It feels really good, getting rid of the clutter. It's like breathing fresh air after hours trapped in a bar that condones smoking.

This is part of my GTD makeover, a process that has been very long in the making, which started in the Inbox of my Thunderbird client (now down to zero and maintained daily at that level). The greater battle, of course, was Gmail. After all, these guys promoted Archiving rather than deleting. But I ended up just leaving everything in my Inbox.

I know better now, of course: process each message as it arrives. If it's actionable, do it. If not, file it or delegate it (and Archive it so it disappears from plain sight). I've created labels based on GTD which are: Do, Defer, Waiting for (Delegated stuff), References and Someday (ideas for incubation).

What I like about Gmail is that I can Archive the rest and then use Search to find them again when needed. Or if I feel they will be important some time soon, I place them under References, so I can recover them quickly. BTW, Archiving hides the mail from sight, but keeps the message. I Archive mail when I think it will be useful reference, but I delete mail that I think is of no importance (eg: forwarded chain messages, messages that have nothing in them but "Read this, it's funny!", etc)

BTW, GTD means Getting Things Done, based on a book by David Allen, a productivity guru who uses zen(!). The book is highly appealing to geeks, who often have lots of multitasking to do. GTD helps tame the multitasking frenzy by asking us to do things one thing at a time and always keeping the mind free from clutter (by continually recording, capturing and then emptying the mind -- he compares the clutter to stuff that clog RAM in a PC -- see why GTD has geek appeal? ;-)).

So far, GTD has worked for me -- but it's not a quick and easy process. Try to combine it with kaizen techniques (small steps and small wins).

See also:

• Hipster PDA - printable templates for a do-it-yourself PDA, courtesy of D*I*Y Planner.
• GTD - Wikipedia entry

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