Best Laid Plans Empty Your Inbox (with me!) and Hemlock & Oak Daily/Weekly/Monthly Planner Review EP 278
Nov 24, 2025
Join Sarah as she tackles her overflowing email inbox, transforming 140 messages into zero in just 40 minutes! Learn her effective triage methods and one-touch policy for managing tasks. Dive into how she handles other digital messages, including WhatsApp and texts. Plus, hear her in-depth review of the Hemlock & Oak planner, featuring spacious layouts, quality paper, and helpful goal-setting pages. If you're seeking organization tips and planner insights, this is a must-listen!
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Start With A Quick Archive Blitz
- Do a quick first-pass archive of clearly non-actionable emails before deeper processing.
- This reduces clutter fast and makes subsequent triage much faster.
Timed Inbox Cleanup Session
- Sarah timed herself cleaning Gmail from ~135 messages to zero and logged the minutes.
- She spent about 40 minutes total including an initial 7-minute sweep and 33 minutes processing actionable items.
Touch Each Email Only Once
- Touch each message only once: decide and act immediately rather than repeatedly re-opening it.
- Accept minor context switching to keep momentum and avoid repeated re-processing.