One of the keys to the GTD process is getting to zero. David Allen talks about a state where you have captured all the “stuff” in your life and placed reminders in a trusted system so that it is out of your head. By doing this you can achieve a state he calls a “Mind Like Water”, where you can relax and just work on the current task without trying to remember the 20 things you used to keep floating around in your head.

Email is an area that most people have trouble getting to zero. We get so many emails, and people use their inboxes as filing or a crude to-do list, so inboxes are never completely clear. I would say that once you are able to get to a completely empty inbox, you will never want to go back to your old ways.

Take a block of time to commit to this project, put on some music that you like and let’s get started.

First go through the inbox and delete any emails that you can. You know, all the junk like email newsletters you thought would be interesting and informative but end up clogging your inbox.

Then sort the inbox by Sender, and deal with emails in groups from individual senders. You can delete the ones that you don’t need, or file them in folders in your email client, or in GMail, you can label the emails appropriately and archive them. Don’t feel bad about creating a new folder or label for a single email. That is what they are for. Your goal is to get all these emails processed quickly, so don’t worry, keep going.

If an email contains something that you need to do something about, use David’s two-minute rule and if the task will take less than two minutes, just do it. If the task is longer than two minutes, either put the email in an Actions folder or file it and put a note on your appropriate Next Actions list.

Keep going until you see the empty inbox. You will feel great! And then keep that box clear DAILY! It will be easier that way.