Bankrupt… Yahoo! style
Recently I was reading a friends’ blog and they mentioned the idea of committing “bankrupt” on a certain email account of theirs… I thought that this might be a good idea, but just filed it under “good idea, I could do that with my account” file. And of course…
i did nothing with it.
So, on Friday, I woke up at 5:22a.m. and decided to go stand in line at the at&t store to purchase the new iPhone. I didn’t know what place in line I would be considering I had a friend who had been standing in line since Thursday at 7:00p.m. (although, he had been waiting at the mac store – which was probably a little bit more exciting than my experience at at&t, in Waco). So guess what place in line I was?
3rd
That’s right. You heard me correctly… 3rd!!
So I stood in line, eventually got my black 16G iPhone and went home to get some sleep.
FAST-FORWARD to today.
I get my email hooked up on the ole’ phone and BAM! 1096 unread emails. gulp. All on the phone. This might be a problem. So, instead of sifting through all the emails to find out what I liked/disliked… I just selected all and deleted them… you heard me – I deleted them. It was kindof freeing. I felt free, electronically speaking.
okay, I lied – I saved a couple; specifically, our Jim Gaffigan tickets, and several emails from Abigail when we first started to get to know one another.
That being said, it was still freeing. Like I had gotten rid of something I knew had to go but was unwilling to let go of “just in case.” So, what do you need to get rid of in your life?
enjoy
I don’t call it Email Bankruptcy, I call it Email Triage (which I think fits better). I only have 4-5 emails in my inbox at one time. I delete emails that I will never read again after responding if necessary, and move ones I feel I need to keep for a while in another folder.
Look up Inbox Zero on Google for more tips on controlling your email, and not letting it control you, from Merlin Mann.
Trae
July 15, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Bravo for following through! I’m still too chicken…… There might be something good in between all of that other junk, right?
mab
July 15, 2008 at 8:27 pm
@mab: just do it… You’ll feel liberated.
macriner
July 15, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Sometimes I wish I could leave all our possessions behind, drive away, and be free from everyone (except Scott – he would be with me) and everything. Of course, I always want to come back to everything – hopefully cleaner than I left it.
Danielle
July 15, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hey Criner, ,it’s Audrey.
How are we supposed to keep communication lines OPEN when someone goes and deletes emails?!
We sent you a very important TOP SECRET email and now it’s gone. For…ev…er.
How do you know where we are? If we’re okay? Do you? How are you gonna communicate that to our parents?
-audrey and angel
ps – just kidding, everything’s fine, we’re great, things are great, good job on getting rid of some of the junk in life. bravo.
sharethewell
July 22, 2008 at 4:57 am