Inbox Zero – Maintenance Plan

February 8th, 2009 | Tags: , ,

After [finally getting to Inbox Zero][0], I have found that my numbers have started creeping up again.

![](http://plaidcow.net/moo/images/2009/02/unread.png)

Having some sort of maintenance plan would go a long way to keeping it at zero. The first part of my maintenance plan is shown above. Just knowing how many I have outstanding in a nice concise manner is a big help. Sometimes I would rather go take care of something in the inbox rather than see the number count up. And this method does work.

Dieters claim that just by writing down everything you eat for the day can magically lower the amount that you eat. I would have to agree that it is true. (And, it is supported by [particle physics and quantum mechanics][1].) Just taking the effort to write down at the end of the day how many are left, gives me the encouragement to make sure there are fewer left. (As a proof to this, I offer that when I started writing down my counts again on the third, my numbers were three times as high as they are now. I would rather deal with it than have to write it down.)

[0]: http://moo.plaidcow.net/2008/10/inbox_zero–finally_there
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

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