Email Bankruptcy
Yesterday I realized that I had over 3000 messages in my Gmail Inbox, and that the items that needed action (replies, etc) were being buried in the pile. It was time to declare email bankruptcy. So I clicked on “Select: All”, and then clicked the option to select everything in my Inbox. Then I clicked the “Archive” button. Voila! It’s all gone. Then I created a new label called “@Pending” (the @ symbol is to make it get listed first alphabetically). I went through the archive and found the stuff that needed action, adding it to the “@Pending” list. I’ve now got a sparklingly empty Inbox and a pending list of 14 things that need my attention. When new messages come in, I’m forcing myself to decide immediately whether it requires action, and if it doesn’t, whether I’m going to archive or delete. I can already feel the psychic benefits of being so organised; it’s like a big source of guilt has been removed just by hiding all those old messages. I recommend it!