Use the Yesterbox Method to Always Stay up to Date With What’s Happening in Your Inbox.

Managing your inbox, like so many other things, is an unavoidable evil in our daily lives. Therefore, it’s best to manage it with a strict system, but such systems can be difficult to implement and adhere to. Furthermore, as with many other things, finding the right system is time-consuming and adds stress to an already frustrating task. Here’s a simple system that won’t take long to master and will truly help you manage your unread emails without overwhelming you. It’s called “yesterbox.”

What is Yesterbox Inbox Management System?

This method—and its amusing name—was coined by the late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who described yesterbox as a way to “eliminate email guilt.” The concept is simple: today, you only deal with yesterday’s emails. It’s like a slightly more strict version of the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method, and while I’m not always a fan of FIFO , I recognize its place in a balanced approach to productivity—and yesterbox is a great example.

Xie believed that “zero inbox” was not only a difficult goal to achieve, but also practically impossible. As soon as you start replying to emails, the replies start coming in. Email is, by its very nature, a form of correspondence—you send and receive messages—and for it to be effective, it must be continuous.

The thing is, you don’t know how many emails you’ll receive today. The only real, finite number you can count on is the number of emails you received yesterday , so that’s what you should pay attention to if you want to avoid getting caught up in instant messaging.

How to use Yesterbox

Start by setting aside time to manage your email daily. Ideally, this should be in the morning, so nothing too urgent from the previous day gets overlooked. Try timeboxing your day and allocate a specific time—about half an hour, depending on the volume of emails you typically receive and how much work you actually do through them—to manage your email each morning. Hsieh advocated setting aside three hours for this task, but he was the CEO of a giant company, so be realistic about how much time it will actually take you. Spend some time exploring different approaches to time management and to-do list creation, such as the 3-3-3 list or the 1-3-5 method . Understanding how much time email management should take, as well as how resource-intensive it actually is, will take some effort, but these methods will help.

Use this time to review and respond only to emails received the day before. Then, filter out emails from the previous day that will require more effort, whether a long reply or an attachment. You can star them or move them to a folder, but first, focus on those that require simple responses—or no response at all. Essentially, you’re using the two-step email management technique , but you’re specifically scheduling it to apply only to messages from the previous day. Review each email before returning to those that will require more effort. Then, don’t look at them again until the next morning.

This allows you to create a final to-do list that won’t last all day. Regularly reviewing previous emails for each day will also help you avoid missing anything. The only real exception to this rule should be urgent emails sent that day that relate to tasks currently in progress. If you expect such emails, add the sender to your priority list to ensure you receive notifications, and, if possible, ask them to make the subject line easily recognizable. Resist the temptation to review emails that concern anything other than urgent and important matters.

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