Discussion Forum > inbox withdrawal
Ah, yes. "Yesterbox". I must remember to add it to the list of things I developed which have been renamed by other people and claimed as their own:
Yesterbox (Do it Tomorrow (2006))
Pomodoro (Get Everything Done (2000))
Time Boxing (Get Everything Done)
In-box Zero (Get Everything Done)
Yesterbox (Do it Tomorrow (2006))
Pomodoro (Get Everything Done (2000))
Time Boxing (Get Everything Done)
In-box Zero (Get Everything Done)
March 22, 2016 at 12:36 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Mark,
That is funny. I was reading the Systems Mindset and it uses Desired Outcomes all through it which was the name of one of my ebooks DOIT - Desired Outcomes Implementation Technology. I honestly don't know if I invented the term or read it somewhere else and used it. I have no idea where Sam Carpenter got it.
Gerry
That is funny. I was reading the Systems Mindset and it uses Desired Outcomes all through it which was the name of one of my ebooks DOIT - Desired Outcomes Implementation Technology. I honestly don't know if I invented the term or read it somewhere else and used it. I have no idea where Sam Carpenter got it.
Gerry
March 22, 2016 at 15:28 |
Gerry
Gerry
Gerry:
There's only so many words in the English language so I guess there's bound to be some overlap. But what I was complaining about was the idea being used without acknowledgment and under a different name.
There's only so many words in the English language so I guess there's bound to be some overlap. But what I was complaining about was the idea being used without acknowledgment and under a different name.
March 22, 2016 at 15:34 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Yes, you're right, yesterbox is exactly the same as DIT. I've used DIT before (after I read your book years ago), got sloppy with it, and a comment on the site here about "Yesterbox" recently reminded me that it's a very nice way of dealing with incoming mail, so I re-implemented it in my mail program. Which is when I discovered I'm terribly addicted to inbox-checking.
And, BTW, this also illustrates your point about the importance of habits. Apparently I've never really fully developed the habit of DIT for email processing, let's see if I can do better this time around.
And, BTW, this also illustrates your point about the importance of habits. Apparently I've never really fully developed the habit of DIT for email processing, let's see if I can do better this time around.
March 22, 2016 at 21:15 |
Nicole
Nicole
Dissenting view. Your inboxes are raw, unprocessed material. Your DIT list is a processed list of tasks that you have committed to doing. "Doing your mail" can be as little as reading that inbox, filing what you need to file and listing the resulting tasks. My routine used to be:
- start by dragging the inbox to a WIP folder which gives me a closed list.
- run through and list tasks.
- select all the contents of the folder and drag them to my to my 2016 folder.
Recently, I've switched to doing as many correspondence tasks as I can before dragging to the filing. This saves me digging out mails and re-reading before I reply, so it's a little more efficient. More importantly, it reduces the build up of tasks deferred indefinitely to to-do (one day) lists.
DIT would transfer the tasks (only) to tomorrow's list. But your inbox would be clear after each batch. (I do twice a day, when I'm on my game.)
- start by dragging the inbox to a WIP folder which gives me a closed list.
- run through and list tasks.
- select all the contents of the folder and drag them to my to my 2016 folder.
Recently, I've switched to doing as many correspondence tasks as I can before dragging to the filing. This saves me digging out mails and re-reading before I reply, so it's a little more efficient. More importantly, it reduces the build up of tasks deferred indefinitely to to-do (one day) lists.
DIT would transfer the tasks (only) to tomorrow's list. But your inbox would be clear after each batch. (I do twice a day, when I'm on my game.)
March 24, 2016 at 9:59 |
Will
Will
When doing my inbox, I look at importance and time to do rather than urgency.
Important-quick are done immediately.
Important-not-quick get stars. Sometimes I add them to the main system, sometimes I leave them there. It depends on the task. If they're part of a large batch, they might get their own folder to keep the inbox tidy.
Everything important has now been identified and is either done or in the main system.
Inbox done.
Processing the rest (all are unimportant, but often kept because they're interesting). I'll usually do the quick ones right away, and leave the rest for later.
I rarely bother with a separate folder for unimportant but maybe interesting these days. If they're older than a few days and not starred, then they're unimportant. I'll move them out if there are too many. I find it easier to delete interesting things if there are so many it's obvious I'll never read them all. Just a few, well, I'll probably make time for them.
Important-quick are done immediately.
Important-not-quick get stars. Sometimes I add them to the main system, sometimes I leave them there. It depends on the task. If they're part of a large batch, they might get their own folder to keep the inbox tidy.
Everything important has now been identified and is either done or in the main system.
Inbox done.
Processing the rest (all are unimportant, but often kept because they're interesting). I'll usually do the quick ones right away, and leave the rest for later.
I rarely bother with a separate folder for unimportant but maybe interesting these days. If they're older than a few days and not starred, then they're unimportant. I'll move them out if there are too many. I find it easier to delete interesting things if there are so many it's obvious I'll never read them all. Just a few, well, I'll probably make time for them.
March 24, 2016 at 16:09 |
Cricket
Cricket
This weekend I decided it would be a good idea to set up a "Yesterbox" so that I only see yesterday's emails, and can postpone processing today's emails to tomorrow. So far it has been working very nice, but yesterday, while chipping away at my email backlog from the past month or two, I found myself after every processed backlog-email compulsively checking the Yesterbox to see if any new mail had arrived.
I had just cleared my whole Yesterbox, so no, no new mail. Duh. I hadn't realized I was so addicted.