Spring Cleaning
April 9, 2006
If I try my hardest, I might just be able to recall a day when I would sit down and fire up the old internets to check my email with great anticipation. I can almost hear the modem connection now (remember how high-tech that screeching noise used to sound?), followed by the "Welcome!" message from AOL, if I were so lucky to find a connection number that wasn't busy (remember how low-tech hearing the busy sound through your modem speaker was?). Then, with baited breath, I would wait. Wait for those three little words.
You've got mail.
Oh, someone has deemed me important enough to take part of their day to send me a message. Perhaps two, maybe three people. What a privileged life I lead. Has there been a greater invention than email, like...ever?
Well, it's now several years later. We don't use AOL anymore (do we?). You've Got Mail became passe the minute the ink dried on Meg Ryan and Tom Hank's contract. Now the great communication breakthrough of the last half of the 20th century is turning into a scourge for many of us.
I sat down on Saturday to look through my inbox. Over the past year or so, some 2000 messages had piled up in the inbox alone. 2000 messages. 2000 unclassified, all in this together messages.
The frightening thing was that I knew that things were getting lost in the big pile. I was thinking back to laundry day when I was a bachelor and how much money I would find in pairs of pants that had been sitting on the floor for a few months. This was my inbox. Messages getting stale after a few months, messages I really should have replied to. I needed a better system.
The first step was to do the laundry, so to speak. I couldn't go about changing my ways until I cleaned out all those messages. Funny thing is, it took far less time than I thought it would. First tip: When cleaning out your inbox, sort the messages by person. Much of the time, you can mass process messages depending on who they are from. Back and forth email with coworkers about the project at hand? Trash. Receipts for airline travel? Better hang on to those. After sorting my messages and going through them all grouped this way, I had pruned down my inbox from 2000 messages to just over 50 in about 15 minutes.
Now I had 50 or so messages that fell into two camps: Things that needed action and things I needed to keep. So I created two sub folders in each of my mailboxes, one called "Attention" and another called "Keepers". Pretty soon those 50 or so messages were stowed neatly away in the appropriate folders, ready for me when I can get to them. Then the glorious moment, looking at the top of Mail.app and seeing "Inbox (0 messages)".
The last tidbit I can pass on is something I have read quite a few times over the last few months. Many people, writing from the same kind of "I am overwhelmed by email" experience, have reported great satisfaction in tuning their mail client to only check for email messages every 30 minutes or an hour. I currently have mine checking for mail every minute. I'm guessing that isn't very good for productivity, and will start on Monday with a setting of every 30 minutes to see how it goes.
So, here's to a clean inbox for the start of spring!
Filed under Life in General, Rants, Technology
Comments
KC says:
Hello Everyone! No baby yet, but we are anxiously waiting. Daily, if you read this soon, which I am anticipating you will given the recent posting, will you send me an email, I need to ask you about setting up some web space for a family website....want to be able to update people, post new pictures of the kid, things of that nature! I will let everyone know when the big day is here!
KC
Dad says:
I'm sorry.....from the headline, I thought it was a post about the Atlanta Braves!
Dad
casey says:
Its a girl!!!!! Baby and Mother are doing well. Ireland Elizabeth Collins 8 lbs even, 20.5 inches and beautiful.
KC says:
Hey everyone! The baby girl is wonderful, and mommy is feeling better every hour. We are ready to get home.
Hey Pops....Did you catch the 3-hitter from Hudson today? I think the Bravos are settling in!
KC
Dad says:
Yeah, I saw it kid......however, he's going to have to be able to go out there every other day and I'm not sure his arm is up to that! I gues Leo wasn't doing his job too well? I'll give you the fact that it's early in the season. More later on.
"pops"
Dad says:
I hit enter before I meant to! Old fart thing I guess?
SUPER CONGRATULATIONS! Your life has just begun!!!
Enjoy every minute because time will fly by!
All the best from Fran and I
Comments are closed for this entry
casey bass says:
Hey buddy, miss ya. We are about a week away from baby Collins, KC a dad! Love to hear from ya. I just used the hedge clippers yesterday to trim the azaelas, you got those in Canada?
Bass