Yesterbox: a new way of handling mail

How to do so if Inbox Zero does not help and you simply fills up with letters? Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos.com and Yesterbox.com, shares his secrets of processing incoming mail. For more than 10 years, his mailbox was his to-do list, so the more there came letters, the greater the stress experienced Tony. The problem is that it looks like an endless treadmill - there is no sense of accomplishment and you start to think that to achieve «inbox (0)" is practically impossible.

In 2012, Tony felt his email box began to spin out of his control and by the end of the same year he began to experiment with the technique of managing your mailbox. Thus was born the «Yesterbox» technique - when every day your list consists of your yesterday's, not today, mail.

1. Your task list for today - it's your yesterday's post (ie Yesterbox).

The great thing about this method - is that waking up in the morning you already know in advance what kind of things you expect. You handle yesterday's post and feel the progress, because in that case there is indeed a inbox (0), as you are able to handle all of yesterday's letter.

Moreover, you finally will be a pleasant feeling of competition and accomplishment when you You realize that to cope with the work with their e-mail until one o'clock, and then - before noon, and so Further.

It also turned out that Tony has become more productive, because without all this stress and feeling blockages people began to receive answers to their letters are not in a week or a month, but only after one day.

2. If it can wait 48 hours and still did not happen anything serious, then you should not reply to the letter today, even if it's just one word.

It is the desire to respond to emails instantly is almost the most difficult part of the transition to this system. You need to train yourself psychologically to stop worrying because of the address. Your attention should be focused exclusively on the processing of yesterday's correspondence.

3. During the processing of letters of Yestrebox system before to see today's letters, you have to process at least 10 posts yesterday.

Once you have processed at least 10 reported yesterday, you can make a "gift" - allow to see that it was the post office today. The main problem is that people often try to postpone until later is not very nice letter, and strive to move to a new, easier and more enjoyable. And so you can still do all the work.

4. Planning of complex messages.

Any email response that takes you longer than 10 minutes or requires special studies should be postponed to a special folder should appear in your calendar reminder when you need to process these posts. It will be something like a separate scheduled meeting at 1:00 - plenty of time to deal with complicated letters. No rush and only correct answer.

5. Schedule time on your calendar to "separate meeting" in order to walk on his yesterday's report.

You probably know approximately how much time you take to process incoming mail, so just plan to respond to the communications, such as a three-hour meeting. And every day in your work schedule will be time allotted specifically to work exclusively with e-mail.

6. The only thing that you can afford to do with today's post - a removal action, mark as spam folders forwarding or sorting.

All this you can afford during the phase of "remuneration", that is, viewing today's post. The only exception is a response to the letter, which is a chain of correspondence, which stretches since yesterday or the day before.

7. If you need to contact your e-mail is painted time, set in a separate meeting calendar and send an email to a special folder.

This happens when you are busy particularly important matter and want to keep your finger on the pulse in order to make sure that the person to whom you are assigned to monitor the transaction, did not miss anything important.

8. If you are behind schedule and your mailbox has a letter the day before yesterday-old scroll in her work schedule a separate time to process them.

But first in processing must still be yesterday's letter, and only then - all the rest.

If you are going on vacation and will not be all the time to work with e-mail, schedule in your calendar in advance enough time to process emails after his return to work.

9. E-mail us with no expiration date that can wait longer than one day, create a separate email account.

They can be read when you need to kill time, for example, during the waiting time of a train or an airplane, or in the gym on the treadmill.

10. Fold-mail as notes in your Evernote and deleted from the mailbox.

A photo: Shutterstock