A number of years ago, I tried the whole “live your life in your inbox” thing. It worked for a while but good God it was annoying after a while. It got to the point that I couldn’t find anything. Not only that, but once I regained my senses and started sorting things back into folders where they belonged, it took AGES for me to whip my system into shape again. Suffice it to say, I’ve learned my lesson and I have actually found great pleasure in making it so that my inbox has as little actual email in my inbox as possible. When I’m able to clear out my inbox entirely, I feel like I’ve won a video game. Yeah, I know I’m a nerd over here, but everything that makes you happy you know?
1) It’s cathartic for me
There are so many reasons that I like seeing no e-mails at all in my inbox. As I may have mentioned before, I like using my inbox like a todo list, so if there is a task that needs doing, a bill that needs paying, or an ongoing issue that I need to handle, I like having those e-mails in my inbox. If I can zero out my e-mail it means that (at least temporarily) all my tasks and responsibilities are done. It’s lovely to be able to sit back and look at an empty inbox and realized I accomplished everything I needed to get done. That is, until an e-mail comes in 10 seconds later….
2) I live in my inbox as little as I can
I get anxious when there is too much e-mail in my inbox. Even if it’s stuff I haven’t gotten to, or tasks that need to be done, when the e-mail counter says (100 unread emails) I get a bit twitchy. I know it’s the old argument of “there are 2 kinds of people in the world, the organized ones and the ones with 21,000 unread e-mails” (Shudder). I don’t like seeing piles and piles of e-mail in my inbox because it gives me anxiety. I feel like I’m missing something so I try to get it out of my inbox and files away as quickly as I can.
3) Maintenance is key (Getting rid of junk)
We are all inundated with e-mail. some of it’s actually intended for you, but most of it is “HEY LOOK AT US WE HAVE A THING YOU MAY WANT!” The noise of continually recieving e-mails claiming to be self important and desperate for your time and attention is where spam and hackers also live, which is a continual concern. SIDE NOTE; I do recognize the irony of me complaining about too much email when some of you have arrived at the post because you’re on my mailing list….but lets just move on from that for the moment. The best way to deal with all the junk mail is to unsubscribe and block anything that is comming to you which you don’t intent to receive. This will ensure (for the most part) that the email in your inbox will be the ones that are actually intended for you (which…ahem….includes your favourite Internet tech blogger….I hope!).
E-mail is a great method of communication. I genuinely do like it. The problem for me is the amount. While I do like zeroing out my inbox, getting it there sometimes simply isn’t possible. Because I like using my inbox as one of the methods for figuring out what tasks I need to do, It means that some ongoing tasks have to be kept in my inbox for a long period of time. In turn, when I’ve completed these tasks there is a great wave of euphoria when I can take all those emails and put them in a side folder where they belong. If you find that you have too much email in your inbox, try zeroing it out and see how you feel. If you like it, make some time every once and a while to zero out, and keep your life simpler.
How much email is in your inbox?
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