How to stop email procrastination and achieve Inbox Zero

How to stop email procrastination and achieve Inbox ZeroHow to stop email procrastination and achieve Inbox ZeroWhen I tell people the number of emails I have waiting unanswered in my inbox, I sometimes get reactions of consternation and horror. At one point, the number reached four digits. When the number tips high, I do sprees of deleting emails, but its still easy for me to let emails build up into an anxiety-producing pile of requests, pitches, promotions, and sales.I am not alone in this email pileup. One recent survey found that the average U.S. employee has 199 unread emails. For us to be better emailers, we need to be better at combating the inertia we feel in responding to emails that do not require an immediate response.Heres how experts suggest tackling email overload in our inboxes.Respond right away - and delegate the restOne study suggests making responding to emails a daily habit. For employees in a workplace where email is critical, actively engaging with our email a cross the working day was found to reduce employees stressful sense of overload, according to the study.The research recommended responding within an hour of an email being sent. For emails that require more thought, try creating a deadline for yourself, so that you can stop yourself from putting emails in inbox purgatory.Delete freelySometimes, my emails are subscriptions to promotions and events I do not remember signing up for. For productivity expert Laura Stack, deterring unwanted emails is a key factor to stopping email stress. I am a freak about unsubscribing right away. You want to cut back on the things that come into the inbox in the first place. Theres so much volume. Prevention is key, she said.Try answering emails like a CEOAnswering emails like a boss means that you dont let requests sit in your inbox unanswered because youre not socially anxious about coming off as rude. You firmly write Thanks, but Im passing to requests you are rejecting as soon as people ask them. Emulating the two-word response style of CEOs like Mark Cuban, BuzzFeed News reporterKatie Notopoulos found that responding immediately to her emails created an efficiency high.As I fired off a bunch of not-super-important emails, something strange happened. I feltextremely good. I was high on the fumes of efficiency. No longer did a little rechnerwolke hang over me, the nagging feeling you get when you know youre supposed to do something and cant remember what, she wrote about her quest for inbox zero.To practice boss email style, Notopoulos suggests emailing your short responses from your phone, so that you can stop yourself from using the excuse of replying once you have a computer.Understand that timely is better than perfectIf you are a perfectionist who delays email responses because you worry about saying the right thing in emails, Ask a Managers Alison Green suggests reframing your idea of what perfect email writing can mean.In most cases, people like timely responses more t han they like perfect responses written several weeks too late, Green advised one self-identified perfectionist email procrastinator. Effectively immediately, take perfect off the table as a goal or at least redefine it.For you, perfect is I respond within two days, regardless of how flawless the content is.In your case, flawless ends up meaning never happens, so it cant be in the equation.By being upfront about your commitments and current bandwidth, you communicate to the recipient that you are still a reliable colleague - even if your email response may disappoint them.The bottom lineThis upfront email style is a trait that many inbox zero achievers share They recognize that to stop emails from overwhelming you, you need to make answering your inbox a part of your daily routine.