Inbox contains various e-mails, be it a client mail or a spam mail. We usually forget to clear the inbox by deleting the extra emails. Inbox has become more like a pile of junk than a traditional way of communication. Most of the times, we do not take any action on the email at the time of receiving it, and we leave it for reviewing later. This approach leads to increasing stress in one’s life.

Inbox Zero is an approach to email management developed by Merlin Mann, an American writer, blogger and podcaster. The aim of Inbox Zero is keeping the inbox almost empty at all times.

Mann proposed a simple theory, that time and attention are finite, and if we waste these on our inbox, the productivity will suffer. According to Mann, zero refers, not to the number of messages in the inbox, instead of the amount of time an employee spends on sorting his inbox.

Also read: What is ProtonMail and 6 reasons why you should use it

How to Achieve Zero Inbox?

Zero Inbox is achievable by using archive and snooze features provided by email service. Archive feature allows us to send the emails to a separate folder which would keep the inbox tidy.

After archiving an email, we can see that email in the ‘All Mailboxes’ folder. If we want to open that email again, we can click on the Search tab and enter basic keywords like the name of sender and subject of the mail.

Snooze is another fantastic feature which gives a user the freedom to receive a particular email again after a specified time. These features can be used whenever we want to make our inbox junk-free.

Why Does it Matter?

We all receive emails that are not relevant to us. These emails take up space on the cloud. Also, when we continuously see so many emails together, we feel a burden of work on our shoulders. It would be very efficient if we could convert our inbox into a to-do list so that we do not have to maintain another list. Zero inbox promises mental clarity, better focus and efficient time management.

We all must try this approach in our inboxes so that we do not stress over the number of things we have to take care of at the same time. Though the number of tasks to be performed would not decrease,  a well-organised inbox will surely motivate us to complete the remaining tasks and respond to the mails as soon as possible.

Also read: 10 best Gmail extensions available on Chrome