Productivity

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Why the concept of Inbox Zero is great

Some of you may have noticed. Recently we launched MailFred – a small helper for GMail – in public beta. MailFred is supposed to increase my – and potentially your – personal productivity.

There is one simply reason we built MailFred: We love the concept of Inbox Zero. And MailFred does help achieve just that. So we are really scratching our own itch.

Inbox Zero is a term coined by Merlin Mann, founder of 43folders. The basic idea is to have your inbox to “zero” most of the time (at the end of the day or at least at the end of the week). That’s not “Zero mails unread”, that’s “Zero mails I need to do something about (right now)”.

Every mail is an “action” item. Once a mail is opened/read there are five “purposeful” actions: delete, delegate, respond, defer, do. Choose at least one.

Image source: Slideshare presentation by Merlin Mann (see below).

The implications of this approach are simple yet powerful. Acting directly on an email and doing the next step means that

  1. The amount of how often a mail is touched is drastically reduced.
  2. Clutter is removed from the inbox.
  3. Mails are out of your head because they are where they belong. It just feels better, doesn’t it?

To get a basic idea of the concept check out the slide show from Merlin Mann:

If you have more time you can also watch this video with a presentation at Google from 2007.

What do you think? Do you use inbox zero? Why, why not?

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Does a tablet increase productivity?

I am not a gadget geek. I don’t always need to be up to date on the latest performance tests or OS reviews. I own and use regularly a laptop (Lenovo ThinkPad), a tablet (Nexus 7) and a smartphone (Nexus S). The Nexus 7 is my first tablet and I just bought it recently (yeah, I am somewhat late to the game, I know). I bought it because I figured it would fill the gap between smartphone and laptop. I wanted to use it to stay organized, do some relaxed reading and generally be more productive.

After using the Nexus 7 for a few months I have very mixed feelings about the need for a tablet. It is a great reading device, no doubt about it. Also for video and audio it has its merits. But for general business? For productivity? For getting things done?

Don’t get me wrong. I can see a tablet being used in hospitals and other places where people have to be very mobile. I also totally buy the concept of “touch” being more natural and all. However, for a “normal” desk job? For answering mails? Writing a term sheet? Preparing a presentation? Keeping a journal? I don’t think so. Until speech-to-text is really working well, there is nothing like a physical keyboard. Maybe the Microsoft Surface – with its build in keyboard cover – isn’t such a bad idea after all…

And yes, compared to a laptop it saves time on boot up. Also in the train it may be handy. I get it. It might even be that a 10 inch tablet would change my mind or that I am using my tablet “wrong”. However, right now it is not making me more productive.

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