By MikeR, Generatorland.com

It’s not all fun and drunken boasting here at Generator Land. We also have to work sometimes and like everyone else, we’re often flooded with email.

I’ve become an Inbox Zero Zealot and one of the things I’ve noticed about being in the Inbox Zero frame of mind is that you value email a lot less. Actually, I should say you value certain emails a lot less. When someone sends you a “Thank you” or an innocuous “FYI” you just can’t wait to digitally incinerate it.

I’ve gotten to the point that when Outlook flashes up its little email notification alert, I read the first line of the email and decide if it’s deletable and then take action right in the little alert window. Delete it, flag it, or open it are all available from a dropdown in the email alert preview window. Nice.

After deleting three new emails in the space of a minute yesterday I began to feel like I was using an instant messenger, not email. Messages sent via IM are impermanent and fleeting. Some people save IM conversations for later reference but I doubt it’s as common as people saving emails. Now I’m blowing through emails like instant messages. Nice.

Sure, there’s a risk I’ll delete something without realizing I should have saved it, but I think by now most of us have a pretty firm grasp on who sends us the useless and trivial emails and how they can be quickly identified. Those are the ones I target with extreme prejudice.

So the next time Agnes in HR sends you an email inviting everyone to the breakroom for birthday carrot cake, make sure her email spends less than two seconds in your Inbox. Then go get yourself some cake.