Inbox Zero Vs. Inbox Infinity: How to Effectively Manage Your Email
Email is a huge source of frustration and productivity loss. It’s estimated that, in 2018, the average office worker received 121 emails per day and that number is expected to continue to grow.
To cope with the overwhelming amount of email people receive, productivity gurus have created dozens of ways to manage inboxes.?
By far, the two most popular approaches are:
Both approaches have many pros and cons so, this will help you decide which approach is right for you and how to optimize the one you choose.?
Which Approach is Right for You?
There’s tons of debate regarding whether inbox or inbox infinity is the most productive approach. As a virtual assistant company, support high-powered professionals in a wide variety of industries and roles. Our experiences have taught us that neither approach is definitely best. Rather, to be successful, you need to choose the inbox management style that the best fit for your job role and personality.?
Here are some factors to help you decide which approach is right for you:
Inbox zero is ideal for you if:
Inbox infinity is ideal for you if: ?
Next, we’ll dive into some hacks to help you most effectively use inbox zero and inbox infinity.?
Time-Saving Hacks to Attain Inbox Zero? ?
The pursuit of inbox zero is often extremely time-consuming and can force people into a reactive state where they spend their days responding to emails rather focusing on strategic activities.
Use these time-saving hacks to prevent email from consuming your days:?
No matter how rigorous you in getting rid of unimportant messages, if you’re receiving hundreds of emails per day, you’ll likely to spend a solid chunk of your day reading and reacting to emails. Chances are, that time would be better spent on more strategic work and personal activities.?
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If staying on top of all of your emails is important for your role but, doing so is consuming too much of your time, consider hiring a virtual assistant. They can sort your inbox based on urgency (or other criteria you specify) and take care of other tasks such as following up with contacts, scheduling meetings, formatting documents and other small but urgent tasks that distract you from higher-value activities.
How to Stay Organized with Inbox Infinity
The biggest challenge professionals face with adopting inbox infinity is that it’s inherently unorganized and easy for important messages to slip through the cracks.
Use these hacks to find key info in your inbox and set expectations with people who email you.
Inbox infinity is an effective productivity tactic if communicating via email isn’t a critical part of your job role. However, though you’re letting your emails pile up, continue to check your inbox regularly so you don’t miss out on vital conversations.?
Bottom Line?
Ultimately whether you should adopt inbox zero or inbox infinity depends on the role that responding to emails plays in your success and how comfortable you are with having thousands of unread emails.
Regardless of which method you choose, the key to using email efficiently is keeping your inbox organized. Download our free guide to learn how to create an inbox management system that saves time and prevents important messages from slipping through the cracks.
In case you missed it:
From the Prialto blog archives.
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