A lazy man’s successful war on email

(reposted from my old blog to maintain a copy…)

Like essentially everyone I know, I have struggled under the weight of an overflowing inbox for almost as long as I’ve had an email account (something like 15 years now). Like my smoking habit, I’ve tried countless times to wrestle email into submission using an endless stream of productivity strategies, tools and gizmos: GTD, ‘Take Back Your Life’, Good Experience/Bit Literacy, Gootodo,Logitech IO pens, Hipster PDAs, Moleskines, and the good ole “Leaving Emails I Need To Work On as Unread” system. None of them have really stuck, mainly because there have always been key pieces that take more effort than my lazy ass is willing to put into them.

After a lot of thought (I’m intensely diligent when it comes to enabling my own laziness) I’ve come up with a system that works for me. It borrows bits and pieces from most of the things I’ve tried, but far and away the closest to what I do is Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero. I’ve been using it successfully for about 6 months (including the massive email task of returning from two separate vacations) which is huge for me.

13

Nothing like the right light

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Nothing like the right light

Originally uploaded by tumbleweed.

Jan

9

Girl power

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Girl power

Originally uploaded by tumbleweed.

I’ve been a working journalist since I was 16, which has warped my mind in
countless ways. One odd result: I just simply cannot bring myself to support
political candidates. Voting, when I do it, is a torturous process that
typically devolves into selecting the person I think will screw things up
the least.

But last night, a strange thing happened. Hillary Clinton took the stage to
give her New Hampshire primary victory speech, and my daughter (not yet 2)
turned to the screen and clapped. I’m under no illusion that she understood
what was going on, who this person was, or was doing anything more than
clapping because people on TV were clapping. But it got me thinking about
what a woman in the White House could mean to her life.

So, go Hillary. Seriously.

Aug

31

A lazy man’s successful war on email

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(This post has been updated here, but is left in place for those who might have it linked)

Like essentially everyone I know, I have struggled under the weight of an overflowing inbox for almost as long as I’ve had an email account (something like 15 years now). Like my smoking habit, I’ve tried countless times to wrestle email into submission using an endless stream of productivity strategies, tools and gizmos: GTD, ‘Take Back Your Life’, Good Experience/Bit Literacy, Gootodo, Logitech IO pens, Hipster PDAs, Moleskines, and the good ole “Leaving Emails I Need To Work On as Unread” system. None of them have really stuck, mainly because there have always been key pieces that take more effort than my lazy ass is willing to put into them.

Read on, MacDuff….