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⚡️ Today’s level up ⚡️
Today’s edition introduces a simple trick you can deploy that will radically transform how you operate inside your email inbox. It’s part of a broader “sweep routine” you can use to prevent being overwhelmed by the build-up of small tasks.
Let’s go!
Read time: <5 minutes
Forget inbox zero
Most people try to get to inbox zero every day.
I know I did as an active seller. It was a frustrating game because it rarely happened. As soon as I did, bam…a new email arrived!
Everything changed when I adopted this sweet trick called “Yesterbox.”
This approach comes from the late Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos. I learned about it from the book Doing to Done by Mike Williams, the former Productivity Architect at Zappos.
It has one simple rule:
Get yesterday’s email to zero.
Here’s why it works so well: Your Yesterbox has a fixed number of emails by design and doesn’t grow when you hit zero.
You win!
Before I fine-tuned my personal operating system, I found myself living in my email inbox all day. I thought being hyper-responsive to prospects and clients was a competitive advantage.
However, I noticed by the end of the day, I didn’t get anything meaningful done…plus I still had more emails coming in!
All of my time was being reactive to everyone else’s needs and requests. I didn’t leave room to make progress on what I said was important to complete that day. Yesterbox helped change that.
Transform your inbox in less than 24 hours using Yesterbox
The Yesterbox approach helps you get through all of your emails every 24 hours.
Here are 3 tips:
1. Sort your email by name; find all the emails you can delete; click delete.
2. Find all reference emails; move to a reference folder (i.e. something you’ll want to read or reference later)
3. Respond to the rest.
You’ll notice you’ll get a lot more efficient with email using this system.
Use this approach to:
– Quantify how many emails you get
– How much time you need to process a batch of email
– (PRO TIP) Evaluate why you’re getting the email in the first place (do you need to be receiving it?)
Personally, I schedule two email blocks a day:
BLOCK 1: After I complete my MIT (Most Impactful Task) and before lunch. This is when I get to Yesterbox.
BLOCK 2: A part of my daily shutdown routine at 7 pm. This is when I clear out any remaining emails for the day, knowing anything that comes in between 7 pm and 11 am the next day, I’ll take care of it in the first block.
Make Yesterbox a part of a broader “sweep routine”
One of the key premises of developing a good organization system is doing a routine sweep in the following 3 areas:
1. Tech Sweep
2. Brain Sweep
3. Physical Sweep
Yesterbox is a good example of doing a regular tech sweep, but you don’t have to stop there.
Doing sweeps in all areas allows you to gather things in small batches so you can tap into some sweet relief now and avoid getting overwhelmed later.
Pro-level is combining sweeps of all 3 by stacking them on top of one another and making it a part of a consistent routine.
For instance, I’m a huge fan of sticking to a consistent shutdown routine so I can fully check out from work and decompress by being present in other areas of life.
This includes brain-dumping all of my remaining tasks or ideas into Todoist so I can process and work through them the next morning inside Sunsama. And it doesn’t take long – set a timer for 5 minutes and simply ask: “What’s on your mind?” Stop when the timer goes off.
I try to keep my physical desk tidy too. On top of my desk, I have red folder where I keep all of my important physical papers or mail that need my attention. Each day when new things come at me, like bills that aren’t on autopay, I put them in my red folder to do a sweep and clear them on Fridays during my weekly review.
Hope this was helpful.
You Might Also Like Reading: Do This Each Month to Keep Your Big Year on Track
See you next week!
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