Some days I feel like I spend more time responding to emails than actually working.

Almost daily I receive 4, 6, 10 page Word documents or PDFs of website outlines that I must review and reply to. Sometimes it’s a long “todo” list, sometimes just a list of “whaddya think” ideas. They would get mixed into the thousands of other emails in my inbox and I’d see this insurmountable pile of emails that I’d never be able to finish, so I’d procrastinate and work on something else.

Many times the emails would sit for days, or even a week before I force myself to read through them and answer their questions and respond to their ideas. It was getting bad.

I googled for other people’s revelations and methods for organizing massive inboxes, but nothing that seemed right for me. Some used Outlook’s “powerful and cost effective” features, but I’m an avid Thunderbird user. Others talked about deleting all of your emails as soon as you read them, but I’m too much of a packrat for that. There’s too much history in that inbox.

But that second idea got me thinking — just move them!

It was so simplistic it couldn’t possibly work, but I was desperate and willing to try anything. I created a new folder in my inbox called “Read” and moved over the thousands of emails going back 7 years. It churned and grunted and counted down the number of emails moved, causing me to hold my breath everytime it froze for a second knowing that I hadn’t done a backup today and I worried of losing a day’s worth of email. With the guidance of the spirits of email, my emails completed their pilgrimage to the directory of the forgotten.

I went back to my inbox and I could almost hear the echo of my mouse clicks it was so empty. I felt … unburdened.

Then an email arrived. Then another. Then another.

Looking at my inbox now, instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer weight of thousands of emails and having to pick out the ones I haven’t responded to, I feel a sense of, “This is doable.”

When the emails build up, this is my process:

1. I read the emails starting from the top and working down, which there might be 5-10 of at any given time.
2. I must decide immediately to either delete it, move it if no response is necessary, reply right then, or defer it using Thunderbird’s tagging feature.

That’s it. My inbox now stays empty and I feel more organized, which makes me more efficient and I’ve even found the time to write big long posts like this one. Work is getting done, clients are getting responses super fast, and I’m as happy as a bus load of fat girls going to a Richard Simmons convention.

I have experienced Zen, and it feels gooood.