I love having an empty inbox. It’s just very satisfying to know that there is nothing left for me to do there. It’s the elimination of email clutter. Because clutter in any form – including email – is just the remains of a decision that wasn’t made.
I started to wonder if I could pursue Zero in other areas of my life. If inbox zero is about getting rid of the clutter manifested by unmade decisions regarding email, I should be able to apply that concept to other areas of my life.
What Do We Leave Behind?
I think this really hit me when I went to my mother’s home after her death. Her house had pockets of stuff all over. Stacks of magazines in three different places. A closet full of books, put in boxes and alphabetized into six groups. 5 different piles of paper in the office. A pile of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines. Four separate boxes of jewelry.
These piles probably made sense to her, as she was not one to do random things. But my stepfather and I could only guess what the logic was that formed these separate piles. All we knew is that she intended something different with each pile…but not what that intention was.
All I could count on was that she hadn’t cleared out the piles because she hadn’t made the decision to do so, or hadn’t made the decision on what to do with the items in each pile.
Two Types of Incomplete Decisions
There are two types of incomplete decisions: the ones in which the initial decision hasn’t been made, and the ones in which the decision hasn’t been carried out.
Initial Decision Not Made
These are the types of things that clutter my inbox. I haven’t decided what action I want to take on any given email (delete, file, forward to someone, or take action outside of email).
It’s also evident in piles of mail (what to be do), things purchased (where to put away), clean dishes on the counter (where to put them, because hubby can’t seem to remember), and Pinterest items.
Decision Not Carried Out
As the story goes, three frogs are sitting on a log. One makes a decision to jump off. How many are left? Three, because he only decided to jump, not made the jump.
The space between making the decision and carrying it out also leaves things incomplete. I may know what has to be done with the email, but until I do it, it is still not complete.
I see this in other areas: laundry waiting to be put away, sweaters and delicates waiting to be washed, magazines waiting to be read, papers waiting to be filed, the bag waiting to be taken to the thrift store donation.
Finding the Pockets of Unmade Decisions
In order to get to Zero in all areas of my life, I routinely have to go to the places where things wait, make decisions, and carry those decisions through.
Luckily, these areas of my home and work are limited in quantity. If I can identify them, I can deal with them regularly and get them down to zero.
In order to find these areas, I made three passes through my life, notepad in hand. I wrote down any place where things pile up. This includes physical locations, written locations, and electronic locations.
- Physical. I walked around my house with notepad in hand and made notes of where things were not where they belonged. My clutter gathers in specific areas, and it was easy to figure out where they were based on the current piles.
- Written. I like to write things down, but I am not disciplined enough to always use my computer or other electronic means. I made a second pass around the house looking for physical notebooks or sticky notes.
- Electronic. I sat down with each of my electronic devices, and noted where things piled up. Besides email, I also looked at folders with information waiting to be acted on, apps I used little, and my project tracking systems both at home and work.
Next Steps
I’m going to talk about the various areas of unmade decisions in the podcast this week, with specific examples of the pockets of decision clutter and the strategies I am using to keep them at zero.
Getting to Zero means that first I had to figure out what was getting in my way, both unmade decisions and incomplete follow-through on decisions. With that in mind, I then went through the various areas in my life and figured out where to find the places that I could bring to Zero.
