Última actualización en mayo 26, 2024 por Ewen Finser
If you are trying to get to the proverbial “inbox zero” but aren’t sure where to start, this guide is for you.
As a busy business owner, I’ve struggled with getting a handle on my various inboxes for YEARS. At any given time, I had thousands of messages, some starred, re-forwarded to myself, unread to stay visible (but never acted on).
Over time, this “email debt” started to add up mentally. Earlier this year, I started down the path of inbox optimization and this led me to the “inbox zero” concept.
Now my disclaimer is that I have different inboxes and not every one is at zero just yet, BUT I have accomplished this with a few already… thanks to the methods and tools mentioned down below.
So here’s how I would go about getting started TOWARDS inbox zero…
Definir el problema
This doesn’t make most of the lists I’ve seen, but getting to “inbox zero” means different things to different people. I like to start by asking myself. “what is the cost of NOT having inbox zero”?
En mi caso, las distracciones, los costes de cambio mental y el tiempo real dedicado a filtrar el correo electrónico eran un verdadero lastre para la productividad.
But for some, clutter is a default status (in general) that doesn’t bother them in the same way. Don’t go to inbox zero because some GURU said so.
Hazlo porque te hace más feliz y productivo.
Crear un marco de prioridades
I cannot stress enough how important this step is. Without getting clear on WHAT is important, it’s almost impossible to take any of the next steps. This is actually – mentally – the biggest block for me.
There are many different ways to do it, but here’s how I did it. When thinking about what’s important, I came up with these categories:
- Urgente / Acción inmediata
- Importante / Acción hoy
- Importante / Referencia
- No Importante / Archivo
- No importante / Cancelar suscripción
If you look at your current inbox, how many fit any of these categories? A trick for me (more on this below) is to create folders to move “action” items out of the main inbox and somewhere else.
This way there’s a “action” inbox that is separate from a sorting inbox. Otherwise, I get incredibly distracted trying to toggle between the two in one inbox.
I use the term “action” because a response may not be needed directly. It could be creating a project management task, delegating to a team member, or just routing to the right person.
Bonanza de sudes
A nadie le gusta limpiar el baño. A veces hay que hacerlo.
Esto es lo que pienso de la higiene de la bandeja de entrada. A veces necesitas dedicar una mañana o una tarde a darte de baja de TODA la basura que nunca abres.
Think about it this way: If you haven’t opened an email from a specific sender in 3+ months, it’s time to unsub. You can always re-subscribe later if it truly impacts your life!
Hacer esto sólo una o dos veces al año hará maravillas con la sobrecarga de su bandeja de entrada.
Carpetas y etiquetas
Si te asusta la idea de tener correos electrónicos en la carpeta general, piensa en una estructura sencilla como ésta:
Acción > En espera > Procesado
Similar a un tablero Kanban en la gestión de proyectos, esta es una manera fácil de encaminar las cosas y obtener resultados.
While this first step is helpful, I still need to to (personally) tie some sort of urgency status to it. There are some items like newsletters or shareholder letters that I want to read later (usually a designated time in the evening) but aren’t something that needs to be actioned in the same way a work issue might.
If I start to notice some patterns like this with a common theme, I’ll just create a separate folder for them and even custom RULES to auto-route to specific folders.
Esta es una buena guía sobre cómo crear filtros personalizados en Gmail.
I also like to reference my original prioritization framework to help here by adding a “Reference” folder for important items like project proposals, guides, instructions, directions, or something else that I may need to reference later but don’t need to action AND don’t want to get lost in a “processed folder”.
Software y servicios
Initially I was hesitant to spend money on software to help achieve inbox zero, but when I started inventorying “time spent”, the trade-off became obvious…
There’s an emerging class of excellent tools and software that do the heavy lifting for you. Yo personalmente me he decidido por SaneBox después de probar un montón de opciones, pero aquí hay algunos nombres a tener en cuenta en esta categoría:
Lea también: Guía de herramientas de limpieza de correo electrónico.
Note: not all of these are expressly about getting to “inbox zero”, but they are focused on email organization, filtering, and getting rid of unwanted emails. In other words, they make getting to inbox zero easier.
Lee los correos importantes de tu bandeja de entrada. Olvídate del resto. La inteligencia artificial de SaneBox identifica los correos importantes y organiza automáticamente el resto para ayudarte a mantener la concentración. Utilice nuestro cupón de crédito exclusivo $25 vinculado al contratar el plan de pago.
¿Es Inbox Zero lo que realmente necesitas?
I personally love the feeling of having zero messages to respond to and aggressively filtering what comes through my “distraction zone”. But there ARE other ways to get email productivity boosts.
These are some other ideas to consider if inbox zero isn’t quite cutting it for you:
- Entregas programadas de correo electrónico (pausar correos electrónicos): Existen varios servicios sencillos que eliminan la distracción de comprobar constantemente la bandeja de entrada. Esta puede ser una estrategia más eficaz para hacer frente a la sobrecarga de la bandeja de entrada y/o un buen paso intermedio hasta llegar a la bandeja de entrada cero. Algunas herramientas son SaneBox, Carteroy Boomerang.
- Correo electrónico Organización: Sometimes it’s less about having unread or unprocessed emails and more about having a place to put them, or just having the important emails in one place. Check out my companion guía sobre cómo organizar tu correo electrónico para más medidas.
- Asistentes virtuales / personales: Esto puede parecer exagerado y demasiado caro, pero en realidad hay una variedad de excelentes servicios para encontrar VAs en el extranjero que pueden manejar la tarea de clasificar, programar, e incluso responder a los correos electrónicos que se ajustan a ciertos formatos. Los servicios que puedes consultar son Zirtual y RemoteCoworker.