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How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day (Updated)

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In 2008 Matt Perman wrote a popular post called “How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day.” Nearing 8 years old and originally clocking in at 5,700 words, this material was due for an update.

Here’s the updated article, now in an easier to read PDF format.

Whether you’ve actively refined your email system for years or you’ve never thought much about it, this crash-course article covers the essential principles for managing email more effectively. Topics include setting up your email workspace, rules for processing email, best practices for archiving, and more.

Apply these principles consistently and you’ll multiply the time you have for doing other good work.

Download “How to Get Your Inbox to Zero Every Day.”

What Productivity Can’t Do

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We tend to seek out better productivity practices as a way of reducing our own stress and increasing our sense of personal satisfaction. We can assume that if we have the right tools, work ethic, and know-how, we can solve most of our problems. We subconsciously think that productivity itself will bring us inner peace and joy.

But in itself it’s not enough.

It’s a good thing to want to reduce our own stress and increase our satisfaction in our work. The problem is that those goals are insufficient. Our true purpose in improving our productivity should be to serve others. And, amazingly, this is the path to our deepest joy.

Here’s what Jonathan Edwards had to say on this (in Charity and Its Fruits):

If you are selfish, and make yourself and your own private interests your idol, God will leave you to yourself, and let you promote your own interests as well as you can.

But if you do not selfishly seek your own, but do seek the things that are Jesus Christ’s, and the things of your fellow human beings, then God will make your interest and happiness his own charge, and he is infinitely more able to provide for and promote it than you are. The resources of the universe move at his bidding, and he can easily command them all to subserve your welfare.

So not to seek your own, in the selfish sense, is the best way of seeking your own in a better sense. It is the directest course you can take to secure your highest happiness.

We Are All in Little League

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This week I started coaching little league baseball for the first time. My two boys are on the same team and we’re pretty excited around here.

But going into our first practice, I knew I better temper my expectations. Typical seven, eight, and nine-year-olds have hardly been on a baseball field, much less developed the fundamentals of playing the game. Hand-eye coordination is spotty and attention spans are short (we’re talking five minutes short at our first practice).

All baseball players at this age have major holes in their game. They might have 17 things wrong with their swing alone! But kids can’t fix 17 things at one time. So my plan is to focus on one or two things with each player. If I’m able to help them reduce 17 down to 15 by the end of the season, that’s progress. And then next year their coach can help them get down to 12 or 13.

If we’re honest, we are all in little league.

We are imperfect people with real limitations and real-world constraints, and the way we lead change or grow in any area is essentially the same way kids get better at hitting baseballs.

If we try to change everything at once, should we really expect to make meaningful progress?

We Don’t Have a Right to Be Idle

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No man has a right to be idle . . . where is it in such a world as this that health, and leisure, and affluence may not find some ignorance to instruct, some wrong to redress, some want to supply, some misery to alleviate?  – William Wilberforce

It makes no sense for us to live in a society of abundance while half the world lives in great need, and not be diligent and creative and eager to figure out ways to use our abundance to help meet those needs.

When we look around and see our comfort, privilege, and affluence, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of asking “how can I get more of this?” As Kingdom-minded Christians, our first thought should be: “how can I use this technology/money/time to serve—especially those in greatest need?”

That’s the gospel-driven productivity William Wilberforce gave his life to.

For Those in the Kansas City Area: Join Me Thursday Nights for Questioning Christianity

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Beginning this Thursday night and continuing for 8 weeks, my wife and I are doing a series for skeptics and interested Christians called Questioning Christianity. 

If you are in the Kansas City area, we would love for you to join us! And if you can, bring an unbelieving friend or two. We will be exploring the biggest challenges to the Christian faith, and we encourage people to bring their toughest questions. Our goal is to create a safe space where people can talk about the difficulties they have with Christianity, while showing that there is solid evidence for the Christian faith.

Here are the details:

What is Questioning Christianity?

Questioning Christianity is an 8-week series where you can bring your biggest doubts, questions, and challenges with the Christian faith. This is a safe space where there is no judgment for disagreeing and honest dialogue is welcome.

We will begin with a brief presentation addressing a specific challenging question or looking at the evidence for Christianity, followed by an interactive Q&A.

Some of the issues we will look at include:

  • Is there good evidence for Christianity, or do we have to take it entirely on faith?
  • Can we trust the Bible?
  • Is there good historical evidence for the resurrection of Christ?
  • How can Jesus be the only way to God?
  • Why does God allows suffering and evil in the world?
  • What does it mean to be a Christian?

These are questions that are central to life and which many people wonder about. But it is often hard to find good answers. We want to help people wrestle through their doubts and objections, showing that there are solid answers while affirming the need for people to proceed at their own pace–without feeling pressured, forced, or judged.

When is It?

Every Thursday night, March 31 – May 26, from 6 pm to 8 pm.

That means it begins this Thursday!

Where is It?

Kansas City, Kansas. Specifically, it will be at pretty cool co-working space just to the west of the Plaza:

The Village Square
4436 State Line Rd
Kansas City, KS 66103

(Here are directions.)

Who Should Come?

Anybody with honest questions about the Christian faith. Especially skeptics and seekers, but also Christians who want to know more about why it is reasonable and sensible to accept the truth of Christianity.

You can keep up to date by liking the Facebook page.

We would love to see you there!

 

How Do You Respond to Dissenting Opinions?

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Dissenting opinions are useful even when they’re wrong.

That’s the argument Adam Grant makes in one of his chapters in Originals:

“Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thought,” finds Berkeley psychologist Charlan Nemeth, one of the world’s leading experts on group decisions. “As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance, our qualitatively better.”

When we have expertise in a particular area or more context than others or feel the need to move fast, it’s easy to discount dissenting opinions.  Or worse, to be threatened by them.

Humble confidence means truly listening to dissenting opinions, not shutting them down.

Coupling our confidence with humility honors others and (it shouldn’t be a surprise) leads to better results.

Business is Art

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This is a great perspective from Work the System by Sam Carpenter:

Who says art must include a canvas, sculpture, or musical instrument? Art is creativity, and is there a better example of a creative endeavor than the machinations of building a successful business? Indeed, business is art in its purest form! The painter and the musician shouldn’t scoff at the entrepreneur or corporate chief who must take hard, cold life – sights, sounds, events, things, people – and stir them into an efficient enough mixture to produce a successful business. Business is art. It’s a heroic undertaking, and with it lies two superb by-products: tangible value to others–employees and customers–and personal income for the creator.

Why “Hire Slow, Fire Fast” is Wrong

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You often hear people say “hire slow, and fire fast.” Further, firing quickly is often presented as a “loving” thing to do, because then the person is freed up to pursue what might be a better fit.

This advice needs to be fired. It has problems on both sides of the equation. For one thing, there are times when you should actually hire fast. But more than that, saying that one should fire fast ignores very important distinctions that can lead to very bad decisions and harm to both the person and organization.

The distinction is between firing due to ability issues and character issues. 

If someone is abusive, causing harm in the organization, and acting against the values, then firing needs to happen fast.

But when the problem is ability issues — that is, the person wants to do good work but is struggling — then you fire slow. The aim is, in fact, not to have to fire at all. Instead, you discuss the issue with the person and coach them as much as possible to help overcome the ability issue.

If it cannot be overcome, and a change to a different role that is a better fit is not possible, then letting them go may be the right course of action. But only after defining the problem and helping the person overcome it.

Joseph Grenny, author of four New York Times bestsellers, including Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes Are High, explains this very simply in this two-minute video from the Global Leadership Summit.

 

Does God Care About Efficiency?

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Much (but not all!) productivity literature places way too much focus on efficiency. The default thinking of many seems to be that one of our main goals in any task should be to get it done as quickly as possible with as little waste as possible.

This works well with machines. But it is problematic when it comes to people, because prioritizing efficiency when humans are involved often results in diminishing beauty, quality, and discovery. (For one example, see Patrick Lencioni’s great article “The Enemy of Innovation and Creativity” which is, you guessed it, efficiency.) Efficiency has its place, but it is secondary to effectiveness and quality.

This productivity principle relates to apologetics, or the defense of the faith. Sometimes skeptics look at the universe and the way God created things and critique it on the basis that it’s not maximally efficient.

These thinkers are guilty of over-prioritizing efficiency. For God is far more like an artist than an engineer.

I love how William Lane Craig puts this at his site Reasonable Faith, in response to the question “Does the Vastness of the Universe Support Naturalism?“:

Sometimes people complain that a vast cosmos is a waste of space and so would impugn God’s efficiency as a Creator and Designer. But here I’m persuaded by Thomas Morris’ point that efficiency is a value only for someone who has limited time and/or resources, a condition which is just inapplicable to God.

That’s why I think that those pressing the efficiency objection are just wrong in thinking of God in terms of an engineer marshaling his resources rather than as an artist, who enjoys splashing His cosmic canvas with dazzling colors and creations.

I am in awe as I look at the galactic and cosmic structures photographed by the Hubble telescope. The vastness and beauty of the universe speak to me of God’s majestic greatness and His marvelous condescension in loving and caring about us.

As with God, so also with us. Care about efficiency. But care about beauty and service most of all.