That is, unfortunately, what my e-mail inbox looked like on Wednesday.
2996 messages.
1088 unread.
Yeah. If you haven't gotten a reply from me, it's not that I'm ignoring you. Apparently I'm ignoring everybody.
Part of this has to do with the fact that I've been writing. Focusing on other things. I've been going on these 10-week "write-every-day-even-two-sentences" binges, and while it's been really productive, it's also been keeping me hopping.
Part of it is that I don't have home internet anymore. But let's not kid ourselves -- I was bad about this long before.
What it really is is that "keeping up with correspondence," never among my top talents, has become more difficult as the e-mail proliferates. And as the junk e-mail proliferates, the real stuff gets buried. And I think "I'll get to it later." And then I get busy again.
So, this holiday weekend has been a process of digging out. Wednesday I resolved to myself that, for every day this week, I'd shrink each of those numbers by 50%. Yes, I know -- those of you who do math, or even those who know the story of Achilles and the Tortoise -- will tell me that, at this rate, I'll never get there. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. But this morning, I'm at 600/50, and falling fast.
I really think that "keeping up with my correspondence" needs to be my major resolution in the upcoming semester.
4 comments:
That, and a better junk mail filter! Hope your Turkey Day was a fun one!
I am in good shape recently -- no quite at inbox zero, but finish a week with a max of 5 messages. But there are old messages. . .
And I hear you about the proliferation of email: my mother sometimes complains that when I'm waiting for her I check email on my phone, but it really does help to delete it as it comes!
Perhaps an obvious one but a full inbox is the best time to set up filters. Are there things that you can tag and not review right away? Use a service like Unrollme?
If all else fails, put Netflix on and get to it.
I've been following everyone's advice (and setting up a folder called "FINISH BY FRIDAY" was very helpful!), and Lo! I am down to 90 messages/2 unread! With still one day in the weekend to go!
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