What: A large number of already read emails.
How long kept: Some since January 1, 2008 (my laptop's "birthday").
Usage: Sometimes, see "confession", below.
Why kept: They Might Be Useful; I Might Need Them. But of course.
Destination: Some went into digital trash. Others are now subject to some new sorting mechanisms: some manual, others digital.
Confession: I save all emails. Ok, not Google Alerts, which I have for topical matters, and also my own name. Everyone should set up a google alert on themselves, to see what they or their online doppelgangers are up to in the eyes of parents, partners, high school classmates, prospective employers and clients.
But I digress. If you wrote me an email in February, 2008 that said "LOL", chances are I have it. And I've been rewarded on enough occasions to keep it up -- I've been able to avoid duplicating work, found evidence of conversations, etc. needed in a business context.
It's not good, though, to have most of it mashed in one email box. (David Allen, of GTD fame, talks about the psychological cost of having an overflowing email in box. He's right.) I've set up a new process for getting, handling and archiving emails, and I'm committed to it.
Confession part 2: I found at least 3 emails in my in-box that I should have answered, one from late last year. D'oh. They got buried by other mails. I don't expect my new process to be perfect, but it will be better.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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hmmm, not sure this really follows the rules of getting something out of the house. I thought it was a physical item. But at any rate, I'm sure it felt great to delete!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, you're probably right.
ReplyDeleteI'll throw away something I was going to save for "crafting", right now. (It's still today.)
And my in box? Empty.
I woke up this morning realizing that I had blown off a call I had late yesterday afternoon. No reason, in fact I had an evening business thing, so took a 20 minute nap during that time.
ReplyDeleteAck.
I emailed her this morning to confess and apologize (not the nap, though, I didn't confess the nap) and she was lovely.
That was GTF...getting things, um, forgotten.