Let’s set that you should never remember plans and arrangements. You need your memory for other things, so use it for doing a part of your work right now. Manage your tasks with the help of notes.
Don’t even try to remember!
The best way not to miss anything is to collect your tasks in the email. It is convenient as many tasks arrive there right away. When you receive information in a messenger or at a meeting, just ask to send the same info by email. It is polite, nice and not scary. Also, you can always send an email to yourself.
Yes, we all know that there are Basecamp, Asana, Trello, Todoist and tons of other cool tools, along with chats, groups and even calendars. All of them are cool and useful. But email is the base. Learn how to use it and all other things will follow.
The best way not to get lost in your email is the “empty inbox” method. It means you keep only the messages you need in your inbox and remove the ones you don’t need. You do not delete them forever, you just do not see them.
If you are a part of our team, you have an email address ending with @intuition.team. This is a gmail email, and you can archive messages there. This is different from archiving files. The messages you “archive” do not show in your inbox, but they are still in your mail and you can easily find them by searching or using the “All mail” menu.
There is a simple rule:
Archive all emails that don’t require your reaction
At any moment, your inbox should contain only the emails you need: the ones you have to reply to, including the ones that require you to do something before replying. So, your inbox turns into your to-do list.
Sometimes people have a feeling that “empty inbox” is about trying to keep your inbox clean no matter what, about being nervous and paranoid, about not sleeping when your inbox is not empty. But this is wrong. On the contrary, the empty inbox allows you to be calm and in a good mood. It lets you close your laptop in the evening and forget about work. The empty inbox is your friend, get to like it.
Ludwig Bystronovsky: the “inbox zero” method (in Russian).