Observant visitors may have noticed the new little addition to my sidebar about my "Current Clutter Crisis." Folks, I am drowning in Chile Chews email messages. I wish I could say these were wonderful personal emails written to me by loads of dear Internet friends, but I can't. My clutter is the result of the double-edged sword that is email subscription to blog comments.
I love blogs that offer this option. We all have limited time and I suspect many of us like to visit more blogs than we really have time to keep up with. When I leave a comment somewhere, I like to know if the blogger responds or if someone else has interesting comments. Being able to check a little box that then sends their comments straight to my email saves me the mental anguish of trying to remember which blog had that really great post where I left a question and really want to know the answer. This way, it eventually magically appears in my inbox.
And there it stays. For days, weeks, months. Of course, I'll have the time later to go back and read it, maybe jot down the information, or even leave a 'thank you'. Yes, of course, tomorrow all time will be suspended and I can finally get totally caught up on everything.
Yeah, right.
Nope. The emails sit there, moving down the page, gathering friends and racking up the total count at the bottom of the screen. I knew this was happening but I kept pushing it out of my mind when I logged into my email. When the count passed 5,000, though, I knew I had to face down this monster and take back control of my inbox.
Yesterday, I ruthlessly deleted over a thousand emails in the morning. It was easy. I just deleted everything I had left anywhere. Now comes the hard part. Going through the comments from other people. There are links in some of them I want to bookmark. Recipes in others I want to keep. Reminders to go check for the latest happenings on their blogs.
It's that last part that's doing me in. To work my way through the remaining several thousand emails, I'm reorganizing them by which blog they came from. Then I go visit the blog to catch up. (I've been so busy that I am waaay behind on reading most blogs I enjoy.) Of course, I end up leaving comments to which I also subscribe and then receive more emails as a result. So, my desire to clean out the file is getting hi-jacked by my desire to see what wonderful things others are doing.
Is there hope? I'm not sure. My goal is to have that inbox under 1,000 by the end of the month. 'Course my goal months ago was to get to my ideal weight by the end of this year and that sure ain't happenin', even if I did manage to shed 3.5 pounds this last week. (Yay for vertigo killing the appetite!) See, I've gotten side-tracked again. This is why I can't seem to finish these long drawn-out projects anymore. This is why I like canning. You start and generally finish in the same day. It may be a long day, but it's not going to take weeks or months to accomplish.
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I'm ruthless with emails, at home and at work. I respond immediately and/or delete right away. At school, I've probably got about 15 emails in my inbox, and at home, about 5 at any given time. It's so weird that I'm not that way with real life, only online!
ReplyDeleteI don't subscribe to comments for that reason, I just couldn't handle all the emails.
LOL IF you weren't so damn popular people wouldn't feel the need to send you emails!
ReplyDeleteI need to be more ruthless. I want to be, it's just that I think I need to refer back to them. And I don't.
ReplyDeleteI do subscribe, and actually like when people subscribe to mine, because it helps conversations in the comments section move along. There are times I've asked a commenter on my blog a question and it just sits there unanswered forever...
Rob, it's not about being popular, though. It's about all the other comments people leave on other people's blogs. I'm getting better about just deleting them immediately after reading them but that doesn't help with the hundreds already piled up!
I had a BIG email problem, until my husband showed me his idiot-proof email system.
ReplyDeleteThe key to success is avoiding double handling - that is, looking at something, figuring it's too tricky/awkward/important/difficult to deal with right away. So you close it, it sits there, then you open it again a couple of days later, same thing, but it doesn't get deleted. And on and on, it sits there, cluttering up your life and inbox.
YOU DON'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!
INSTEAD...
I use gmail. I keep my paper diary next to me when I open my inbox. I start at the top (most recent) and do it twice a day. Open each one in turn. If it's something I can deal with right away and is quick, I do it ON THE SPOT.
IF it's junk or a list/email group/other unimportant stuff, I delete it unless I have the time to read it ON THE SPOT.
If it's a recipe or link, I'm realistic. Am I going to use it? If not, I bin it. I mean, I love looking at fiddly beautiful cake recipes, but realistically I'm a do-the-same-thing-over-and-over kind of gal. So they go in the delete.
If it's a friend emailing me about an appointment, new address or whatever, I deal with it, put it in my diary, and delete it.
Anything that I need to do or would like to keep and read later gets starred and archived. Then, if I have time later on, I go back to it and read it and action it.
Once a week on Friday mornings I go through my star folder and clear it, using the same process.
Bingo - everything empty and done!
This system cleared out my inbox - which had NEVER been clear! - in one night and less than an hour - and I've never had an email problem since.
You have to be ruthless with email. The only things that are really, truly important are meetings, personal things like changes of address etc., and job/work stuff. Everything else is optional.
Good luck!
PS - you do not have to reply to this, or any, of my messages or comments :-D I know you're a great person, and don't need you to reply to indicate you've read what I've written :-)
Cheers!
Sometimes you just have to start over. Delete all of it. Or, perhaps delete everything that came in before the beginning of this month. Or, if you have THAT much email, delete everything more than two weeks old. Your life won't be affected negatively and you'll feel so much less stress over it within a short time. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI've finally got my inbox down below 4,000! My connection is so slow that if I'm away from the computer for even a day, they build up very quickly & those 2 weeks without electricity...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately so many of those emails contain very useful info. Some are put straight into a folder to be dealt with later, some deleted immediately & others read or scanned through & dealt with.
Daharja - oh, but I do have to reply to this. Thank you for the information on a system that works for you. I am saving this so that I'll implement with my email.
ReplyDeleteI'm efficient and ruthless with snail mail so it's time I start getting the same way with email.
Maggie's Meadow - just delete it all? Oh goodness, no, I couldn't do that. I know there are some in there I've very specifically saved. I will, I promise, get this under control by the end of the month. (I may not get anything else done...)
5,000 e-mails? Ahhhh! I also like the "subscribe to comments" checkboxes on many blogs, but the thing I like about those e-mails is that very rarely they don't need a response. So I just read them and delete right away.
ReplyDeleteIt's the e-mails that require responses that take me ages to get back to...
Good luck!
I feel your pain!!! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI guess 1600 (the current count) isn't as bad as it used to be...
ReplyDelete