Use inboxes to capture fleeting notes. These inboxes should be drained regularly. If they are reliably drained, you can close open loops, which will help you focus on the most important work.
You don’t have to achieve Inbox Zero. The minimum criteria that you can trust your inbox is if it helps you identify open loops that need to be dropped and those that need to be prioritized. Ideally, you close more open loops than those that arrive, but this is hard, so you just have to do your best.
In my case, I have established the following habits to drain my inboxes:
- For regular tasks, I capture everything in my task manager (Things 3) inbox. I clarify these captured tasks once a week during my weekly review. After clarification, I organize them by tagging them based on priority and moving them to their associated project folder. After that, I review this task list every morning during my daily routine and choose tasks that I could accomplish that day.
- For non-actionable information items like fleeting notes or literature notes that I eventually convert into evergreens (how to convert literature notes to permanent notes), I collect them directly in my writing inbox, which I process every day in different intervals (see spaced repetition writing system).
- For fleeting notes I capture through drafts app while outside, I process them at least once a week during my weekly review to collect writing prompts.
- I also review at least two diary entries for writing prompts every day.
References
Matuschak, A. (n.d.). Inboxes only work if you trust how they’re drained. Andyʼs Working Notes. Retrieved September 7, 2021, from https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Inboxes_only_work_if_you_trust_how_they%E2%80%99re_drained