inluminent

I did it. I cleaned out my Outlook Inbox today (well mostly). (Back in April I had 700+ emails in my inbox.)

I’m now down to 78 email messages in my inbox, all of them requiring some sort of follow up or action from me. A few from more than 30 days ago, but most of them fairly recent.

How did I get there?

1. I downloaded and installed Lookout. Definitely needed to install this, so I felt safe finally clearing out my inbox. Lookout is a fantastic Outlook search plugin/enhancement thingy.

2. Starting deleting shit. And sorting important stuff away… All kinds of stuff was organized away. I deleted anything that didn’t require action on my part, and didn’t reference a client. I sorted away emails from my boss, sorted away things I just didn’t need cluttering up my inbox, and got rid of anything I didn’t need to be able to find tomorrow in my inbox. Honestly with Lookout, it’s easier to find emails by searching globally than it ever was to keep them sitting in my inbox.

Now the big question: Can I keep my inbox under 100 emails for longer than a week?

(It’s a sad day when cleaning out your Outlook Inbox can make you feel accomplished.)

updated 8/10: … down to 26 items in my inbox this morning … feels good.