As a recent convert to the “Inbox Zero” (My term: “In=0”) approach as an offshoot of my GTD system, I’m not sure I follow how In=0 is “too” anything to not work for specific given profession.

Some background: I’m involved with two businesses, one is running a software company and the second is photography related. For both of my “identities”, In=0 works well.

My approach is to have @Action folders for each of my businesses (one set for each) and an archive folder for each of the businesses on my Mac PowerBook, along with using Daylite for GTD. The conversations that I have in each of my lives are not very similar, but neither seems more, or less suited to In=0.

The only difference between leaving your Inbox filled with email and it being “classified” in to an Action folder is where (or how) you’ll look to find something. As a user of both Mac and Windows in my office, I’ve found that I can search easily and find past threads, messages, etc.

Backing up what other posters have said, there are times where I think email becomes counter-productive to forward progress and breaking off the thread to phone or “person-to-person” mode seems most appropriate. My experience is that IM also nicely reduces inbound email flow, thus, effectively handles some issues more quickly.

Doug