Procrastination is a top cause of things sticking around inboxes. We don’t want to act on things, so we leave them sit. This leads to having to go through the same items time and again every time we look at the inbox. But what if there is another cause for a full inbox that isn’t procrastination?
My Current Inbox Management
I have been very good about keeping my inbox empty for years. And that is because I recognized long ago that things lingering in the inbox are simply procrastination on my part. I didn’t even want to take the effort to make an entry in my task list to do the action.
I solved this issue by programming GMail. Now when things are assigned a label, programming comes behind and makes an entry in my task list. So if I assign an email “Read” it will put an entry in Remember The Milk called “Read” and then the subject line, then moves the email to a to-be-read label in Gmail. I have various labels: Enter, Read, Respond, Act.
It’s a good system and I just have to assign a label and it is done. Out of the inbox, into my task management with links back to the email.
Recent Piles of Email
Recently, though, I have noticed that email is piling up in my inbox. And when I apply my label method above to clear it out, I didn’t feel relieved or satisfied. I felt a little bit of panic.
Why would I be anxious about an empty inbox?
I did some free writing on it, and realized that I have come to associate an empty inbox with nothing to do.
I had somehow internalized the belief equating emails with tasks.
But My Task Manager is Full!
The weirdest part of this is that I know I have plenty to do. My task manager is never empty, and I take care of all of those email-driven tasks every week. Besides having all of what I consider “maintenance” tasks in my lists, that is all the tasks that repeat that keep my life running smoothly, I also have all the tasks for the projects I am working on.
So where was this belief coming from?
Email Addiction?
I began to see that I was checking email all the time. I had drifted away from checking personal email at the beginning of the day and in the evening to checking out of boredom. Always on my phone, because the urge doesn’t hit when I am on the computer.
When I was seeing email in the inbox, even though it was not new, I got some sort of satisfaction. When it was empty, I was disappointed.
Even the thrill of marking things as spam was fueling this urge.
Why Now?
I also realized why I was using email in this capacity. I have blocked, limited or removed all time-wasters on my phone. This is a relatively new thing. And apparently when I picked up my phone out of habit, realizing I couldn’t play a game or whatever, I defaulted to email.
What I Did
So my non-empty inbox was signaling an addiction to email.
Ugh. I work very hard not to let low-value things suck away my time. So I applied two methods to this:
- I added my email application to the Hidden section of my phone. Out of sight, out of mind.
- I added my email application to the app that makes me pause after a minute and determine if I really want to be done it (OneSec).
Both of these things have stopped me from checking my email every time I pick up my phone.
Will Something Else Substitute?
I can’t think of any other app on my phone that would substitute for the blocked apps. I’m not going to obsess over my calendar, or text messages, or the weather. But if it comes up again I will see it for what it is.
In Conclusion
I was able to trace my full inbox back through my behavior to see that it resulted from removing other time-wasters from my phone. Armed with that knowledge, I was able to limit my email time.
