Operation: Minimization

Day 38: CLEAR OUT MY EMAIL INBOX

If my email inbox were a real mailbox, I’d have credit card offers and LL Bean catalogs fluttering down the street because they would no longer fit inside the mess of mail.

I am not a packrat by any stretch of the imagination, so why in the world do I still have that forwarded email about why the 80’s were great sent from a friend in 2008? Why do I still have that email my mother sent me months ago with the website for cheap racing swimsuits instead of bookmarking the page? Why do I have so many messages starred instead of just reading and trashing them? And oh my goodness, why haven’t I responded to all of those emails from friends?

Today’s challenge was to sift through my inbox and make friends with the Delete button. I read. I replied. I printed. I bookmarked. I trashed. I have to say it was liberating. And what a beautiful sight it is to see my entire inbox in one page (and it doesn’t even cover the entire screen)!

Will my inbox still look this pretty tomorrow? Probably not. But one day of email liberation is better than nothing.