# The Inbox By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-02-04 Before emails, there were frequently two trays on each office desk, an inbox, and an outbox. New tasks would arrive in one’s inbox. Upon finding a document placed in one’s inbox, one would read the document and determine what, if anything, to do. One might take it to a colleague to discuss it together, write a response, or simply file it. Rarely would one simply let the document languish in one’s inbox. Our email inbox was named for its physical progenitor just as our courtesy copy (i.e., cc) is derived from a long-past carbon copy. Scroll down your email inbox. How many emails does it currently contain? What is the date of the oldest email? The more cluttered one’s inbox, the more challenging it is to efficiently manage information. Of course, there is a search function that allows one to identify what one is interested in finding. That is a helpful technical solution. Whereas that is useful, there is also efficiency gained from determining if the given piece of information needs to be filed, acted upon, or purged. If it isn’t needed, get rid of it. If action is required, do it. If it needs to be kept, develop a file taxonomy that brings coherence to clutter. What doesn’t make sense is to keep an ever-increasing horde of emails in one’s inbox that is distracting, inefficient, and overwhelming. How one manages an email inbox could provide insight into how one might manage an organization. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Email]] [[Efficiency]] [[Management]]