I originally wrote “Zero Inbox”, but zeroing it out wasn’t the point.

Maybe “TODO Inbox”?

TLDR

  1. Clean inbox: My inbox is a to-do list.
  2. Archive: Archive emails that might be useful in the future.
  3. Delete: Get rid of everything else.

Why?

  • Clean inbox, happy life
  • You actually reply to other people’s emails
  • Just writing about what I do, maybe even reflect

Levels

My emails have several levels: unread, inbox, archive, and deleted.

It flows like this (made with Mermaid):

Flow diagram of my emails

Of course, if the status of emails change, then you can always move them around.

  1. Emails come in unread.
  2. If it is not relevant, but I might need it in the future, I archive it. Example: My flight tickets.
  3. If I will never need it, I delete it. Example: My Amazon order that I ate already.
  4. The email is useful, or is a to-do item, so I keep it in my inbox. Example: tickets for show next week, or the recommendation letter I need to write.
  5. After I do the thing, I archive it as “done”.
  6. Sometimes I move information somewhere else, like invitations to my calendar, or to my bookmarks and notes. After that, I also archive.

Sometimes, when I’m quickly scanning emails on my phone, I might read something without fully processing it. So, I manually mark it as “unread” for later.

Don’t obsess

Sometimes, life happens and you have lots of unprocessed emails. That’s okay. Life happens, and cleaning out your inbox isn’t always a priority.

When to start

The best time to start with this is when you go to a new institution, so you start with a clean inbox. It’s a perfect opportunity to begin fresh.

However, there’s no better time than now, so you can start by doing the steps above. Depending on your to-do list style, you might even be able to archive emails right after moving them to your to-do list. Otherwise, keep them in the inbox until they’re no longer actionable.

On Third-Party Email Clients and Services

I think smaller email services, like hey.com, aren’t really that useful.

The emails you already have (institution, personal) are probably on something else.

And they often resist third-party tools, so they can require maintenance and manual setup. Usually you can only interact with them through SMTP, IMAP or POP, which is a worse experience than the “native” client.

Also, especially for personal emails, the more major services like Google or Microsoft have a lower risk of shutting down. The risk they’d disappear one day isn’t zero, but I doubt I’d be the most worried person in the world if that day comes.

Decide your thresholds

From flight tickets to delivered Amazon orders, decide for yourself what you keep, and bear the consequences.

Keep in mind Archived emails can be deleted, but not the other way around. In fact, I just deleted some Amtrak emails from my Archive.

For me, bank statements and other important stuff get their own special folder.

During job hunting, I deleted both “Thank you for applying” emails and “Unfortunately” emails.

I also have email dumps from my previous institutions, though I doubt I’ll ever revisit it. Maybe someday, a local LLM will.