Ken's version of 'Zero Inbox' email Management
I personally think this is mathematically the most efficient way of managing your email that I have ever seen or heard. And I have battle tested it for over a decade.
Context
So i wrote an article last week on how I sometimes ask folks i interview how they organized their inbox, and it clearly created a bit of controversy with some interesting reactions from folks. So i've written this article to clarify a few things like..
What exactly is my 'zero inbox' email approach
Why do i ask this in some interviews (only with product & project managers)?
Let me start by saying I first heard of 'Zero Inbox' email management well over a decade ago. I was reading an article in a magazine (yes, a printed one.. remember those? lol) about the CEO of Walmart and how he valued keeping his inbox clean.
And note that Walmart at the time, from memory, was either the largest company in the world by market cap or one of the largest. So if the CEO of the largest company in the world (by revenue and employees) was able to manage his job using 'zero inbox' you can safely assume you can as well.
And note that during the past 10+ years that i've been using this approach, i have used it in cases where I managed 100+ person org (with many dept's, and part of a global org) and got hundreds of emails daily, I have used it to manage a team of 30+ product managers, etc.
And so I have personally seen how this method scales well and don't think there is a single situation or job someone can give me... where I would not be able to use this method.
How do I do 'Zero inbox'?
There are probably a lot of flavors of Zero Inbox. And I would say that mine has clearly evolved over the years. When I first started doing it, i would make lots of folders and organize them into folders. And then like 7-8 years ago.. I realized that is a massive waste of time.
Then I realized the power of archive and the power of using starred items on Gmail. See screenshot above for an example of what my inbox typically looks like.
And now the logic flow looks like this:
I honestly do not know of a single person that is better at email management than me. Because in the past decade or so.. if i saw anyone that had anything i thought could be better.. I tried it and adopted it.
What are the key principles?
There are a few underlying principles:
Archive, Archive, Archive. The only thing you don't archive are things that you need to respond to.. but cannot respond right now. Those items get 'starred'.
Review your 'starred' items once a day or so and review/respond to try to keep this clean and to max 10 items.
After you have responded to something, you do not need to star it anymore. As it is now the responsibility of that person to respond to you. And Gmail will generally resurface emails that you sent which were supposed to get a response but didn't.
Do not create ANY folders. Do not try to organize anything. It is useless.
Search instead. I search for an email with a text search as fast or faster than i can remember what folder i put it in. In a way, a folder is just another tag that you are using to search and so it is useless.
What do I achieve with Zero inbox?
You will pretty much always get a response from me within a day. Even when i dont have the full answer i'll say something like "I'll get back to you by Friday" and then i star it.
You would be hard pressed to find ANYONE in any client or company i have worked with for the past 5+ years that can show you an email that was supposed to get a response from me and didn't.
I spend far LESS time on email than anyone i know. Why? Simple.. it is math. When you're always archiving, and sometimes archiving before you even read it, than you are almost never looking at an email more than once.
And since the things i need to respond to are starred.. you are rarely having to search for anything. As the things i need to respond to are right there in the starred items.
Why do I ask Product Managers & Project Managers how they manage their inbox?
For me, I consider it highly valuable for product and project folks to be very organized. If they cannot keep their inbox organized than i have seen a high correlation with keeping their sprints organized, or keeping complex projects organized.
Sure, there are probably exceptions. But in my experience.. not too many. And i've managed probably over 100+ product & project mgmt folk in my career...
But even more important than being organized.. is that I want my Product Managers to be awesome OPTIMIZERS.
My Paul Graham Metaphor
YCombinator is famous on its application form for asking the question.. "Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage."
Now some lifelong corporate career folks working on their first startup and applying to YC might standup and complain..
"Hey Paul! Not fair!! I was told in my large corporate to always follow the processes and rules. And therefore I have never hacked a system nor would I want to!"
Now what would Paul think? Would he say.. "oh yeah.. true.. let me include these types of dudes in YC."
No he wouldn't. hahaha
He'd tell them to get lost (or rather he'd just archive their application hehe).
And for me my question on how you structure your inbox is along the similar lines... I want product and project managers that optimize the shit out of their systems and processes... like I do.
And its not that i want them to be exactly like me.. I hope they are different in many respects and have their own strengths. In fact I love when they are BETTER.
But in all the ways that i'm ok with them being different than me... not being 'Great Optimizers' is not one of them.
Just like Paul & YCombinator have decided that having people that 'hack the system and think differently' is NOT something that they need variety on. ALL YC company founders should have this trait.
CEOs and managers have said for decades advice like "hire people that are better than you." And so in my view this is just my version of that.