On Chasing the Right “Zero” ⇥ kungfugrippe.com

Merlin Mann:

Put to best use, Inbox Zero is merely a philosophical practice of learning to be parsimonious about which and how many inputs we allow into into our lives — and, then, to responsibly but mindfully tend to those inputs in a way that is never allowed to hinder our personal commitment to doing the work that really matters to us.

This “inbox zero” stuff isn’t about the number zero, necessarily. I have seventeen messages in my inbox, all of which are currently important to things I am working on. There’s no clutter — no old newsletters, no press releases, no mailing list updates, and no follower notifications — and that’s what this is about. Do you need all that crap in your inbox, or can you be honest with yourself and realize that you don’t need anything from Banana Republic this week, so you can delete that message?