# One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email  ## About - Author: Tiago Forte - Title: One-Touch to Inbox Zero: How I Spend 17 Minutes Per Day on Email - Tags: #articles - URL: https://fortelabs.com/blog/one-touch-to-inbox-zero/ ## Highlights The greatest challenge in checking email methodically is distractions from new emails. It’s very hard to make a decision on each message, one at a time, in order, without postponing a decision or skipping ahead, when every time you archive a message it kicks you back to your inbox, where you see the more recent stuff with its tantalizing bolded subject lines. Turn on auto-advance and, instead of getting kicked back to the inbox when you archive a message, you’ll be immediately shown the next chronological message. - Note: This is an easy way to enter the flow and block out a chunk of time to tackle email. --- > **Follow the sequence:** > **Open Gmail** > **Open the oldest email in your inbox** > **Decide what needs to be done about it, and take one of the 6 following actions:** **1. Archive (“e” shortcut) immediately** This will be probably 60–70% of all messages, as they are basically notifications that just need a quick glance. **2. Reply (“r”), then archive** You can also optionally create a reminder as in #4 below, in case it falls through the cracks and you need to follow up. **3. Add to calendar, then archive** You can paste the link to the email in the calendar entry if needed, but this is unnecessary with Google invites, and a quick search will turn up the original email if needed anyway. **4. Create a task (“add task” shortcut), then archive** Hit the keyboard shortcut for the task manager you’re using, write out the task associated with the message (with a link back to this email generated automatically), and then archive the email. Note that timely, Very Important Emails get treated the exact same way as any other email, because you’re not in reacting mode, you’re in processing mode. **5. Send to Reference app, then archive** You can either forward the email (with accompanying attachments) to your Reference app directly, or you can open links in your browser and save the page from there. **6. Send to Read Later app (“f”), then archive** The easiest way to do this with Instapaper is to right-click any link you find interesting, and then click “Add to Instapaper.” But you can also forward it using only keyboard shortcuts. These are the rules that govern where “stuff” flows to. Follow these steps until you’ve cleared your inbox. Then, importantly, *close Gmail*. - Note: Clear steps to salvation from email! --- That is our real goal — lowering our reactivity is an end in itself, because anything that forces you to react controls you. The sign that you’ve changed, that the system is working, will be the day you receive a hysterical Very Important Email, with Urgent Deadlines and Scary Consequences, and you will feel nothing as it gets mundanely processed in just the same way as every other email. You won’t react — you will *decide* to act. - Note: Decouple the act of processing from the doing. --- The main reason your inbox is overflowing is the same reason any system gets blocked at the intake: **a lack of effective downstream systems.** Things pile up when they have nowhere to go. But be wary of simplistic, baby-out-with-the-bathwater answers. Achieving Inbox Zero is not about “dissing” email, or melodramatically declaring “email bankruptcy.” My attitude is the opposite: **EVERY. SINGLE. EMAIL. is important.** - Note: This makes sense because your email should only be giving you useful information. ---