Inbox Zero, Compulsion to Many, Game to 0Boxer

You know the whole “inbox zero” thing that people do with their email? The whole, get the thing empty to help you get things done? Right, it can be tedious and the only reward has been being able to tweet “Inbox zero achieved!” and getting virtual high fives from your friends (while your spouse wonders why you’re looking so smug), until now. Meet 0Boxer a new social “game” where you earn points and badges for more inbox zero related tasks you do in Gmail.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to 0Boxer.com and sign into Gmail. Giving 0Boxer access to one of your GMail accounts (I picked my TNW one).
2. Download and install the extension for Chrome (which is what I picked) or Firefox.
3. Refresh Gmail.
4. Play.

Now you should see a spiffy toolbar that looks like this at the top of Gmail:

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As you can see I was not close to inbox zero so, I did a little archiving and deleting, earning myself 24 points and a badge!

Now the question is: Will I keep using it?

It’s pretty neat, and it will be fun to see what comes of it, but I’m not sure. 0Boxer doesn’t have the immediate benefit that Boomerang, Rapportive, or WiseStamp do for me. There are a lot of social games out there. Maybe if you are really into competition and want to see how you and your friends are doing against each other. For the moment though, I think this is a cute idea that will interest you for a while, then if that’s the only reason you’re pushing for inbox zero…you’ll leave it behind.