I recently spent an hour doing a “digital purge.” I realized that my inbox needed a good cleaning of its clutter. I think I am doing pretty well at the moment as I only have 143 messages in my email inbox. I deleted hundreds of emails during my hour of purge as I realized I was never going to go back and re-read that New Yorker article again no matter how excellent; a message about an event was no longer relevant since the event had already happened (and I didn’t go); I didn’t need the latest sales flyer from the Vermont Country Store; I wasn’t ready to start sending donations to the 2024 political races; and…well, I imagine you get the idea.
I am married to someone who keeps an extremely tidy inbox. I would be surprised if he has 10 emails floating about. He reads and deletes or files them in their appropriate folder every day. He has never suffered from procrastination. He acts on something the moment it needs to be acted upon.
Me? I am more a ponderer. I will get it done but I am likely to ruminate over something for a period of time before acting.
It is rather fascinating to take a look at what is sitting in one’s inbox at any given time. It does shine some light on what we value, what we are pondering, what is filling up space in our lives.
Today I got an offer to buy some Walker’s Shortbread in a special commemorative tin honoring the late Queen Elizabeth II. It is quite an attractive tin (I think there are two design choices) and Walker’s shortbread is quite delicious. We usually buy a small box at Christmas as part of our selection of cookies-we-do-not bake. But I don’t think I have ever bought Walker’s shortbread off season. I have no clue as to why Walker’s decided I was a potential customer. Yet, for some reason—was it the attractive tin complete with smiling Corgi?—I did not immediately erase this email. Maybe I should buy some shortbread? Would that be an appropriate thing to do in celebration of Easter?
No. I know I am not going to order Walker’’s shortbread (the tin is $39.99 plus shipping—and I did not go down the rabbit hole of checking the cost of the shipping. But yet….I did not immediately erase this email. I can’t really explain why. It sounded like a nice idea but I am not going to order. I don’t think so. Maybe. No. Erase the email, Jeanne !!
I am a fan of Katie Porter and so grateful for her presence in our Congress. I am still not sure how I feel about her pursuing the very competitive Senate seat that Dianne Feinstein will vacate in California. Yet, I DID unsubscribe from her emails this afternoon, but left her a message of appreciation, sharing my need to focus my dollars on my own state right now. I have supported candidates outside of NC in the past—John Fetterman, any Democrat running against Lindsay Graham, Raphael Warnock—but for me it is too early to enter a broader battle with my few small dollars.
I am holding on to the email reminding me that tomorrow is FREE SMALL CONE day at Dairy Queen. My grandchildren in Massachusetts think we live in paradise because we have a Dairy Queen just down the road from where we live. I will most likely go and get that small cone tomorrow just as a hat-tip to the grandchildren’s love of Blizzards.
Family Search sent me an email to tell me I now have one 21,000 cousins reaching out to me on my genealogy site. Wow. That is a lot of cousins. Do I really want to add that many relatives to my consciousness? I am still trying to find out when my aunt changed her name but I am not sure I am willing to reach out to all those cousins with a hope that one of them might know.
NY Times Cooking seems to be in touch on a daily basis, primarily with recipes I will never cook and I am not sure I would eat them even if someone else cooked them. Plus Tom (the true chef of our family) has instructed me to stop forwarding these messages to HIS inbox (remember, I told you he keeps his inbox nice and tidy and minimalistic…).
King Arthur Baking also sends weekly, if not even more frequent emails, and as much as I loved going to their store when we lived in Vermont (you REALLY need to visit) I didn’t even bake bread during the pandemic so I don’t think I am going to do that now in my minuscule size kitchen.
I have never indulged in CBD but there seem to be several vendors that are intent on getting me to try as their ads regularly clutter my inbox. No problem hitting delete on those.
I will never erase the Sunday morning message from OUR STATE magazine as their Sunday morning read is always delightfully worthwhile. That one stays in the inbox until it is read, though in truth I usually read it right away early on Sunday. No pondering, no procrastination. Read, enjoy, delete.
Various blog posts stay in my inbox for quite a while until I find the time to read them. A few are quickly scanned and deleted into the trashcan but some, like Bill McKibben’s THIRD ACT, hang around for quite a while, always making me long to be half as good a human being as he is.
These days it is most difficult for me to delete the sales announcements that come from a variety of art supply stores—Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artarama, Cheap Joe’s. One never knows when you really should go ahead and order that tube of Unbleached Titanium White acrylic paint. Didn’t artist and teacher extraordinaire Teri Jones suggest in class yesterday that you really need this for your collage? But I will drag my feet and ponder and fret over those sales emails until I don’t even remember why I needed that particular color acrylic and will hit the delete key or drag the email into that adorable little trash can (or go ahead and place an order).
If I am fortunate enough to get a lovely email from a friend, I will keep it around, read it multiple times and then carefully deposit it in the KEEP folder. It is always lovely when you get an email from someone who actually knows you.
You probably get the point by this time. I need to be more ruthless when it comes to purging my inbox and to do it more often. Maybe you do, too.
Take a look at what is sitting in your own inbox. Perhaps it tells an interesting story about who you are, what you value and if you might need to fight your way out of that clutter box. Or perhaps you are in the same elite clutter-free club that hosts my spouse. I don’t really think one is better than the other but I do think our inboxes reveal some aspects of our personalities and what we mark as important for now.
It mean so much to me to be in touch with you, dear Jeanne. It cheers my life greatly. I just hope I am one of the 143 emails left in your inbox. Please don't purge me! Sending very much love over to you. Betty (Holden )
Great article Jeanne! I get at least 100 trash/junk emails a day, and some I am embarrassed to say what they are about, and have no idea how they got my address. I cannot unsubscribe or block, so I just go through 2 times a day, select all and boom! Gone!