Why I fell off the Inbox Zero wagon
Make room for the stones first. (Photo by geralt).
In the early days of my business, I was doing all of my own marketing, sales, customer service, and operations.
That meant that I lived in my email. Each weekday, I would start around 8 AM, crank through as many emails and phone calls as I could, and then start teaching music lessons at 3 PM.
Hiring help was necessary as the business grew, but the volume of email didn’t go down. If anything, it expanded. But I was committed to processing it all, based on what I had learned from David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, a painstaking process that required making a decision about what to do with each email, phone call, and piece of paper I received. And once everything was processed, my reward would be Inbox Zero: an empty inbox, an empty voicemail box, or an empty actual box. Everything would be filed, archived, put away, and dealt with.
It went on like this for several years, in which my primary waking focus was getting through the sheer volume of what was coming at me. Sometimes it went really well and I was on top of it with little effort — I could even take a vacation, not just from work, but for email. But other times, I was so busy actually working with clients that there was no way for me to keep up, even if I dedicated my weekends to doing so.
About a year ago, some things shifted in my personal life, which led to a series of cascading changes. I took long walks to give myself time to think. I started getting more rest. I spent more time with family. I decided to take up knitting. I started writing regularly (and here we are). And most recently, I started learning tennis.
On a given day, I might spend three or four hours engaged in such deeply rewarding activities. On top of my regular workday, which is anywhere from six to ten hours, there isn’t a whole lot of time for email. I can triage them, but I can’t give them all the attention they’re asking for.
Bad things have happened as a result. It’s cost me a lot of money, it’s damaged relationships, and it’s impaired the operations of my company.
However, the upside has been even higher: I’ve given myself four to six hours a day to devote to building relationships with students, clients, and colleagues, improving my business, sharing my ideas with the world, developing hobbies that bring me joy, and maintaining a high level of physical and mental well-being. I am actively pursuing the things that I had always wanted to do “someday.”
I will die with a file that’s marked, “papers to file.” They are as filed as they’re gonna get. I’m good with that, even if it means that I’m missing opportunities or paying late fees here and there.
The truth is, everything is a trade-off. Optimizing your life for one aspect means that others will suffer. It’s inevitable, since there just isn’t time for everything. I have found that choosing to have a richer, more fulfilling life has made it easier to keep my work in perspective. I’m no longer stressed out by unanswered emails and phone calls — I will get to them when I get to them, or I won’t, and I will live with the consequences.
The vision of an empty inbox changed my world at a time when I needed a framework for making sure nothing fell through the cracks and all of my clients were seen to. These days, I am fortunate to have a team of people to see to the clients. But with respect to the things I’m responsible for, stuff will still fall through the cracks. I want to choose what I hold onto. I choose the people and activities that fulfill my highest purpose in life and bring me joy.
What do care about most? What could you give up that would help you to live more in alignment with that?