For many years, I used to strive for zero inbox both at work and in my personal Yahoo! account.
Every few weeks, I would sit at the PC in our den where I am writing this and spend hours on a Saturday morning sifting through hundreds and sometimes thousands of emails, reading a few, erasing ninety percent of them and placing others in various folders, like "Banking" "Bright Start," "ComEd and Nicor," "Water Bills" and "Words."
As a matter of fact, something tangible that came from this here post is that I saw that I still have a folder marked "Chrysler" which contains email receipts of payments made on my junker minivan from the time I first leased it new in spring 2006 until the month that I paid it off nearly seven years later after purchasing it off the lease. Since I have had the title in hand for about five years now, no need for that email clutter. I just deleted the folder.
The last time that I went through hundreds of emails and deleted most of them, moved many to files and even read a few was at the end of May.
I do not know what struck me on the first of June.
Perhaps it was that I came to a realization that nobody was holding my feet to the fire to keep my personal inbox at zero. Nobody gives a shit. Then why oh why did I?
I let the emails pile up for a few weeks. I actually did not even check them for a while, much to my detriment. I missed a ComEd payment since the bills come electronically, but paid it double in July. I made our Subaru lease payment a bit late to Chase Bank in June also because I was not diligently checking my email.
I do not get the lease payment bills sent to me, but Chase sends a reminder early in the month that my next auto loan statement is available online.
Without something printed, it is easy for me to forget.
A few more weeks went by and occasionally a relative would ask me if I saw a certain email. I would play it off, saying that I have fallen several hundred emails behind.
Sorry!
The few hundred became a thousand after about thirteen or so days, then before I knew it I had thousands of unread emails.
Where the Inbox number used to number in the tens and then in the hundreds, it has now settled at a permanent 999+.
If you look at the top of my inbox tonight, it shows 6,293 unread emails.
Considering that I have probably read at least fifty emails since June first, it is safe to say that over 6,300 have been sent to me since that time.
Every few weeks, I would sit at the PC in our den where I am writing this and spend hours on a Saturday morning sifting through hundreds and sometimes thousands of emails, reading a few, erasing ninety percent of them and placing others in various folders, like "Banking" "Bright Start," "ComEd and Nicor," "Water Bills" and "Words."
As a matter of fact, something tangible that came from this here post is that I saw that I still have a folder marked "Chrysler" which contains email receipts of payments made on my junker minivan from the time I first leased it new in spring 2006 until the month that I paid it off nearly seven years later after purchasing it off the lease. Since I have had the title in hand for about five years now, no need for that email clutter. I just deleted the folder.
The last time that I went through hundreds of emails and deleted most of them, moved many to files and even read a few was at the end of May.
I do not know what struck me on the first of June.
Perhaps it was that I came to a realization that nobody was holding my feet to the fire to keep my personal inbox at zero. Nobody gives a shit. Then why oh why did I?
I let the emails pile up for a few weeks. I actually did not even check them for a while, much to my detriment. I missed a ComEd payment since the bills come electronically, but paid it double in July. I made our Subaru lease payment a bit late to Chase Bank in June also because I was not diligently checking my email.
Without something printed, it is easy for me to forget.
A few more weeks went by and occasionally a relative would ask me if I saw a certain email. I would play it off, saying that I have fallen several hundred emails behind.
Sorry!
The few hundred became a thousand after about thirteen or so days, then before I knew it I had thousands of unread emails.
Where the Inbox number used to number in the tens and then in the hundreds, it has now settled at a permanent 999+.
If you look at the top of my inbox tonight, it shows 6,293 unread emails.
Considering that I have probably read at least fifty emails since June first, it is safe to say that over 6,300 have been sent to me since that time.
This amounts to about eighty unread emails per day. Last time I checked about a year ago, I was getting about the same amount so with everything that I subscribe to, the number seems to have settled at a "steady eighty" per day.
 |
| I have 80.7 unread emails per day since June 1st. |
Mind you this is my personal email. I get more than this at work.
If I was to keep to inbox zero at home and at work, I would have to wade my way through nearly two hundred emails per day. Perhaps five to ten real ones. All the rest just basically slightly enhanced spam.
If you look at the ones that came to me today, they included several from investments that I have from T. Rowe Price, Vanguard and Capital One.
A movie that I put on hold yesterday was made available for me today, and I am about to watch it with my wife. One of my emails from earlier today was from the library informing me that it had been made available. A real email with a real purpose.
So if you send me an email for some reason, and I cannot imagine why you would, please do not be offended if I never look at it. Chances are, it would end up in the spam folder anyway with messages of love from Russian ladies and offers of extreme wealth from African princes.
If you send it to me in a week or two, perhaps you'll be my 7,000th unread email.
Now wouldn't that be something!
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