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Productivity

Inbox Zero: the method for emptying your inbox

By Jepi Alberti · 10 November 2026 · 1 min read

Inbox Zero doesn't mean having no emails: it means having no pending decisions in your inbox. Every message goes through a decision and leaves the inbox.

The four decisions

Diagram of the four Inbox Zero decisions: do it, delegate it, schedule it and archive it
Every email, one decision.
  • Do it: if it takes two minutes, now.
  • Delegate it: if someone else should handle it, forward it and make a note.
  • Schedule it: if it takes longer, turn it into a task with a date.
  • Archive it: if nothing needs doing, out of the inbox.

The routine

  1. Check email in two or three blocks a day, not all the time.
  2. Clear the inbox in each block using the four decisions.
  3. Unsubscribe from what you never read.

What about WhatsApp?

The same method works for any channel. The problem is having lots of them: that's where a unified inbox helps.

From theory to tool. duokim brings your email into a single inbox and suggests what to do with each message. Find out more.

Jepi Alberti · Founder of Innovandia. Over 25 years in marketing, 20 of them in digital marketing; founder of the agencies b2b.studio and induSmart.digital. About Innovandia.