How to catchup on a bloated inbox

I took sometime off this week and my inbox everywhere is bloated. Typically I dread the inbox bloat post a vacation but not this time. I have accepted that my inbox is always going to be full. That keeps me sane.

Think about it: We are living and will continue to live in an information overloaded world. I expect the overload to only get worse in the days to come.

In 2022 when I started getting 800 emails a day, 1000+ WhatsApps, 100+ DMs here and more, I changed my approach towards productivity. The older techniques did not work anymore. I needed a mindset shift and a fresh perspective to look at things.

As luck may have it, I was in Rishikesh and the river Ganges was flowing in front of me as I was writing my morning pages by sitting in the banks. And everything clicked in that moment.

Our information overload is just like a river. It keeps flowing in its path. It’s doing its job. My job is to make sure I have enough clean water in my water bottle. As long as that is taken care of I don’t have to worry about the river flowing constantly. This realisation made me do things differently in the productivity space.

I stopped using Eisenhower matrix or any technique which focuses on the long list of things. It doesn’t work in a world where everything is urgent and important at all times. Instead I started doing these three things.

1. Prioritised >> Inbox zero

   Picking 3 priority items at all times is far easier than figuring out 3000 emails. Priority helps with focus and ruthlessly cut all distractions.

2. Sprints are ambiguity slayers

   Biweekly Sprints helps me time box and resource box an effort. It helps me seek clarity and make progress. I get better, sprint by sprint.

3. In a matrix world, who makes a lot more difference than the how. Prioritising who helped me in getting the how done better. This made a world of difference in leverage.

4. From a tactical point of view, I stopped using rules in Outlook instead I set search folders. I stopped worrying inbox being neat and clean, instead I transferred all my priorities to figjam. I stopped worrying about to do list or done list or anti list, instead I decide what is the highest ROI activity I can get done for the priority I picked and get that done 💯.

In a nutshell, the world of productivity changed for me after I changed my mindset.

Now I am ok to miss messages. I trust folks will bug me if it is so important.

I am ok to not reply to emails and DMs. I am sure if I am needed they will catch me whatsoever.

I am ok to miss people/ things/events/opportunities/whatever as we live in a world of abundance.

I just need to do one thing in any moment: put in a monomaniacal focus on what is my priority in that context and get it done well.

I am super flexible to change my mind on priorities as I discover new information. This has kept me super sane and focused on what I do, with whom I do and how I do at all times.