It’s funny to read my thoughts on achieving inbox zero three years ago. While I generally keep my inbox pretty empty, lately it’s been slipping out of control again. The thing is though, what was fine back when I was an employee isn’t necessarily the best strategy for an entrepreneur, and I need to be OK with the idea of being, essentially, eternally incomplete.
One of my mentors once said something that I won’t directly attribute because I might have gotten it wrong, but basically, “as an entrepreneur you need to get comfortable with the idea of never being caught up.” Maybe I’m just seeking validation or justification for the current state of things, but this makes a lot of sense to me. The only time everything should be on track for timely resolution of all outstanding issues and plans should be, well, that’s something for the executor of my estate to handle, probably.
If things stop coming into play, there’s something wrong, basically, and as long as new items come in, you’re never done. Lots of open items is a sign of health for an entrepreneur, whereas it might be a sign of overwork or poor organization in an employee.
That said, knowing a concept to be true is a lot different than living it. I’ll confess to more than a few lost weekends spent just trying to find some kind of order in the chaos, knowing full well that it wasn’t the highest and best use of my time but “letting myself have this” so I wouldn’t be stressed over the number of open items going into something else I knew was going to need my full concentration later in the week. These happen less often now, but when they do at least they’re becoming conscious decisions.
And cue the obligatory clarification: meeting client obligations, performing above expectations, and paying people on time aren’t optional things that can be shuffled off on the basis of embracing chaos or whatever. Systems are more important than ever to make sure things get tracked and implemented (automatically, if possible.)
It’s just that there’ll never be a point where everything’s 100% caught up, your business will be eternally incomplete, and it’s super important to realize this or you’ll never overcome that urge to finish one thing before starting the next one, and then nothing will get started ever again once you reach a point of sufficient inputs.
Inbox infinity can be natural and welcome. Just don’t actually use your inbox to hold all the action items, OK?
Photo by ThrasherDave
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