I read the post Unsubscribe to achieve inbox zero by @5plus6 and was inspired to take a shot at this concept. I’m going to explain why Inbox Zero does nothing for me.

I don’t know who coined the term “Inbox Zero,” but let me see if I understand the concept. The goal is to clean out the email inbox so that you have no unread mail and all messages have either been deleted or categorized in folders. A nice clean and empty inbox until the next message comes in. Is that right?

When I was a manager, I had the dream of something close to Inbox Zero. I called it “white space in the message window.” In other words, my goal was to clear out my inbox to the point where you could see white space after the last message. It was a futile attempt because I received so much email on a daily basis I could not keep up. 

Today I have two work email accounts. One of them has 296 messages in the inbox and the other has 76 messages in the inbox. Neither one has unread mail. I’ve read everything I need to. I’m not going to waste time categorizing email because then I have to waste time finding it. If I leave emails in my inbox, it makes them easier to find and reply if needed.

My personal email account has 846 unread emails and over 14K messages in my inbox. I’ve read everything I need to. None of this bothers me. Could I do a better job of deleting emails? Sure. Am I going to waste time moving things around? Nope.

Maybe this is just the way I operate in other aspects of my life as well. I don’t need to have everything prim and proper. I know people who get car washes every week because they want their cars to look pristine all the time. Sure, it’s nice to have a clean car, but I can tolerate it when it gets dirty after two days. My desk is messy. Clutter doesn’t bother me; I just ignore it. 

By the way, if your goal is to achieve Inbox Zero on a consistent basis more power to you. Perhaps it is tied to some income-producing activities. Go for it. But I have no interest in Inbox Zero because the amount of time and energy it would take to achieve and maintain it far outweighs the benefit to me.