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After months (!!!) of not seeing the bottom of my inbox, I finally achieved Inbox Zero, and it feels amazing.

Lest you think I had a backlog of several thousand emails, I should clarify. If I’m managing projects well, 10-15 emails is normal. Most of this year it’s hovered around 60-75. That still low number is a good thing: it means my email habits have been keeping things under control.

You could spend hours reading about tips and tricks to manage your email, but after analyzing my own habits I discovered I only use two main rules. I added a third after seeing a bad habit that had crept in.

If you’re ready to take control of your inbox, here’s how to get started.

1) Batch process your email at set times.

Tim Ferris advocates checking email twice a day, at 11 AM and 4 PM (and setting an auto-response). The idea is to intentionally process your email all at once, rather than multi-tasking. This is one of the biggest recommendations you’ll find in email management advice.

Although I’ve done this in the past, it’s not something I usually practice. I’m often waiting on changes or approval for print projects via email. I usually quit Apple Mail while working and reopen only to send proofs, then move on to the next project. If you need to check more than twice a day, great. Try 3-4 times and see what works for you. The key is making a choice to check your email and actually deal with it at that time. Don’t default to the inbox when you lose focus. That leads us to the most important rule…

2) Don’t open an email unless you plan to do something about it.

  • If it takes less than 5 minutes, do it now, then delete it.
  • If it contains info for a project:
    • save the attachments to your project folder
    • turn the text into action items on your to-do list
    • delete it
  • If you must keep emails, put them in folders filed by project/client (whatever works for you). Just get them out of the inbox.

TLDR: Don’t leave stuff in your inbox. I only leave emails in my inbox that need replies. If I can’t answer a question immediately, I’ll leave it in the Inbox until I have an answer, reply and delete (you could also move it to a “Reply To” folder).

Your email is not an archiving system. Please do not use it this way. It becomes large, unwieldy, and complicates web server migration. How many emails have you accidentally deleted? How many notes have you lost to long threads or unhelpfully named subject lines? Your email is an information receiving system… not an information collecting system. Important documents should always be securely stored elsewhere.

3) Get information out of your email and into your project management system.

Until recently, I used Apple Mail as a pre-task management system. I would flag emails in different colors for different tasks required (yellow = reply, green = design edits, purple = invoice, etc.). The problem is, I also have (and use) a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This meant I had to split my attention between tasks in two different places. Most of the questions and estimate requests were in my email, while next steps for projects were in my CRM (I use Daylite). This was not a good arrangement.

“Your inbox is a to-do list to which anyone in the world can add an action item.”

– Chris Sacca

If you use a CRM, that should be home base for managing projects. If I miss a detail or forget a task, it’s usually because I’ve forgotten to create a new project or task in Daylite. The more I work out of my email, the more likely this is to happen.

I started turning edits into tasks in Daylite, instead of leaving them in my email. I already saved photos or copy into the project folder, but I’ve stopped leaving the email in my inbox. It’s not like I’m going to forget to send a draft once I’ve finished a design.

This month I cleared out my email in one fell swoop to get to Inbox Zero. Now that I’m aware of my email-as-to-do-list bad habit, I’ve been maintaining an inbox that might have 2-5 messages in it. It’s great.

A Note About Best Practices:

  • Use an email client (I love Apple Mail).
    I dislike in-browser applications. Browsers are for (wait for it…) browsing. Using a browser for email is asking for distraction. Please note that using Gmail does not mean you actually have to use the Gmail interface. It’s not bad since you can apply rules/filters and use shortcuts, but I’d still set up Gmail in an email client.
  • Try not to check email on your phone.
    Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I haven’t used email notifications on my iPhone for years. Turn off sounds and badges (Settings > Notifications > Mail) so you’re not constantly distracted.
  • Use email rules/filters whenever possible.
    Send promotional emails to a promotional folder – that kind of thing – to get them out of your inbox. Sometimes 20 emails will download, but only 3 will be legitimate requests. There’s no reason monthly reports, newsletters and spam all need to show up in your inbox. You can review that stuff after the real work is done.

Don’t check your email–process it. Go in with that mindset and these guidelines, and you’ll be on your way to a consistently cleaner inbox in no time.

Any tips I missed or workflow hacks you’ve discovered? Let me know in the comments below.

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At this point in our tech-centric lives, it’s a pretty safe bet that anyone reading this post has had to come up with at least a handful of personal passwords at some point. WiFi, bank accounts, social media, Paypal, Amazon, Netflix… the list goes on and on. And if you’re like me, at least a few of those passwords have been embarrassingly bad and easy to figure out (for anyone looking to raise Cain on my childhood AOL Instant Messenger account, for example, I think my password may have been some variation of KISSrocks). For those in any doubt at all, let me assure you that the threat of hacking is very real and can be very costly.

So, is it really all that hard to develop, use, and remember strong passwords? Let’s take a moment to look at a few good options that may surprise you.

you’re doing it wrong: passphrases instead of passwords.

Love him or hate him, Edward Snowden makes a great point. Passwords/phrases don’t have to be random bits of meaningless jargon. Instead, a long, humorous and random phrase could provide you with the double whammy of a memorable phrase that is next to impossible to crack (dibs on margaretthatcheris110%SEXY, by the way). The idea here is that non sequitur (meaningless) phrases are much harder for hackers to figure out than meaningful names or dates. It’s also important to remember that hacking is usually done by computer software running through billions of options a second, not an individual trying to guess your favorite pet’s name (although that can happen).

“The best advice here is to shift your thinking from passwords, to passphrases.”

– Edward Snowden

To see this in action, make up a few test passwords (NOT a password you actually use) and run through them through How Secure Is My Password?

is encryption the right prescription?
how to encrypt your passwords:

Don’t be intimidated by how technical it sounds – encryption simply means to take something that makes sense and make it unreadable. There are tons of different ways to encrypt your passwords, from the very advanced to the very simple, but today we’re just going to talk about a couple of the easiest ways to add that extra layer of security.

  • 1Password. If you’re looking for a secure, user-friendly, minimal-effort way to develop and keep strong passwords, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better option than 1Password. Long story short, 1Password is a browser add-on that remembers all of your passwords for you, and it can even develop completely random passwords that are nearly impossible to crack. 1Password is what we use here at cyclone and it’s pretty incredible, not gonna lie. We’ve tried similar services, but nothing is close to as good. Check it out here.
  • The laziest way to encrypt. Ever. Maybe you’d rather not bring another party into your password bookkeeping – no matter how secure. Or maybe you’re just feeling lazy today, who knows? The point is, you can “encrypt” passwords yourself really easily. Let’s say my passphrase is donatellotheninjaturtle4primeministerofmyHEART247. I can encrypt it by making up my own code in which to write out that phrase. Maybe I’ll move my hands up one row of keys before I type it in, disguising it as e9hq53oo05y3h8huq5745o3%-48j3j8h8w5349rj6Y4Q45@$&. Bingo! Easy as that. Feel free to make up your own encryption code.

Whichever way you choose to develop and store your passwords, keep in mind: the longer, the better, and don’t re-use the same password for multiple sites. Make it something easy for you to remember, difficult for anybody else to figure out.

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Note: these instructions have been updated August 2021, so this post should be valid for at least another 3 weeks (*sarcasm*).

If you have a Facebook page for your business, it’s important to set a custom username so clients can find you by searching facebook.com/yourbusiness.

Here’s how to add a custom username to your business page (this is different than a personal profile). Like the layouts, the rules often change, so you may need to have a minimum number of page ‘Likes’ before the username can be changed. Results may vary – good luck.

  1. Log in to your personal Facebook account and go to Home.
  2. Under Your Pages (sidebar at left) click the name of the page you’d like to edit.
  3. If you haven’t set a username, it should show an option to set it directly under the Facebook page name in the header. If you’re wanting to change an existing username, you’ll need to scroll down to the About section and edit ‘Page Info.’

Update your username, then wait for it to save (it appears Facebook is into autosaving things these days). Make sure your username is active by typing facebook.com/yourbusiness in your browser search bar. If it goes straight to your business Facebook page, you’re ready to begin using this address on your website and other promotional materials.

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