Absolutely. It’s super important for me. It means that there are not some random things that I don’t know about lurking and needing my attention. I can know that I have a reasonable view of what needs to be done so that I can prioritize my focus effectively.

Another other issue is that if I don’t do this apparently low-priority thing every day then it starts to accumulate. I used to let it accumulate until the anxiety reached a crescendo, at which point I had to set aside a ton of time to go through all this relatively unimportant stuff just to get clarity (or shift it all into an “amnesty” folder/pile to deal with later). I have finally realized that it’s not worth letting it accumulate.

Every time I empty and inbox, I now also process a bit of one of those amnesty piles/folders. I have cleared out many of them.

I have been getting these inboxes empty every day (or nearly every day) for so long now that it has become a habit (like brushing my teeth). It would seem really strange to skip it and I wouldn’t do that without a really compelling reason (such as that I’m in transit).