December 10, 2019

💌 Inbox Zero

After reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, here are the changes I incorporated in my daily workflow:

1. Inbox Zero
   I archived 50k+ unread emails in 1-click. After 1 week, I went through all the mails (received after the mass-archival) and unsubscribed from 100+ marketing lists. It gave me a much-needed peace of mind!
2. Newsletter Manager
   I aggressively unsubscribed from most of them. However, there were some newsletters that I liked and wanted to read every once in a while. But newsletters are “not actionable”. They contain “information” but of the “non-urgent” type. When a newsletter issue arrives, I don’t leave everything else to check it out. And that makes them stay there until I read them. Not a good use of my primary inbox!
   I now use Stoop to manage my newsletter feed. It provides you with a custom email address which you can use to subscribe to newsletters. The UX is quite neat. Whenever I’m free (in a cab, waiting for someone, don’t know what to do next, etc.), I open it up and consume content.
3. Task Manager
   In the last few years, I have used Trello, OneNote, Google Keep, Microsoft To-Do, Bullet Journal, RocketBook, Evernote, Todoist, and Apple Notes for keeping track of my to-dos. I learnt that using multiple managers just doesn’t work. Now I’ve moved everything to Todoist, including personal projects as well as workplace tasks. Some features I like are:
   A) Calendar Integration: I know what the non-negotiables are at a glance.
   B) Waiting For: I keep track of delegated tasks using this label.
   C) Next Actions: Whenever I have some time to do something, I open this list and start doing tasks one-by-one.
   D) Someday / Maybe: GTD has redefined this list for me. Now I review this list weekly and move things around more frequently.

If you have benefited from GTD as well, let me know! I’d love to hear about your workflow.

Until We Meet Again…
🖖 swap