March 13th, 2008
…my life, hacked
one of my favorite rss feeds in my google reader is lifehacker.com. i don’t remember how i found the site, but friends, i’m serious… this site helps me every day. the site is all about tips and tricks on how to do life, but do it better.
they recently released a book, and i found some sample chapters on mud puppy’s blog. one of which i was particularly interested in, the section on managing your email. i quickly read through the entire sample section, and decided right then and there i wanted to incorporate this email system into my life.
i receive around a hundred emails every day. honestly, apple mail (and my direct push enabled smart phone) owns my life. at least it used to. something had to happen or else i was going to lose my mind. yes, ladies and gentleman, i am a recovering email-aholic. my apple mail automatically checked every minute, and every time i received an email i would stop doing whatever i was doing, check it, and sometimes handle it. it’s amazing i’ve gotten anything done the last four years at work!
two days into this, i am maintaining a zero-inbox. which is to say, everything is dealt with and has a place, there is nothing that needs immediate attention, and people are getting responded to in a much more timely fashion, even though my email now checks itself once every fifteen minutes (lifehacker recommends every hour, i’m slowly working my way up to that.)
i’ve gone from 5128 emails in my inbox, to zero… in a little under forty-eight hours. two days in a row i have completely rocked my to-do list, probably working more efficiently than i ever have. it truly is nothing short of amazing.
so, it goes without saying that i highly recommend any of you who struggle with GTD (getting things done), to-do lists, email, or whatever, to check out lifehacker and their book.
