Lessons Learned from My Inbox

After amassing nearly 2000 emails in my inbox, I had to get rid of those messages. As I cleaned out my box, I started thinking about how the failure to clean my box had affected me emotionally.

I was frustrated by the large number of messages. Anger kicked in when I realized that lack of action on my part was the reason why they accumulated. A mild level of stress overcame me as I read through them, making on-the-spot decisions about the best way to address them.

Through the emotions, I started to think about the lessons learned through cleaning out my email address inbox and how they applied to real life situations. The three main lessons for me were:

Stop making excuses and procrastinating
Address things immediately
Remove things that serve no purpose

Excuses & Procrastination

First of all, I had so many messages because I used my two favorite excuses to procrastinate: “I’ll read them when I have time” or “I’ll read them later.” Guess what? I never made the time to read them later.

Excuses will put you behind in everything. Many people make excuses out of fear or laziness, which is why they are “stuck” in their current situations in life. They get complacent and stick to what they are used to. They are neither moving forward nor backward in life, stuck in a “pending status” – just like the messages in my inbox.

Nothing is going to happen until they make a decision to do things differently, if at all.

Also, when they make excuses and procrastinate, they miss out on opportunities. Some of the messages could have contained information about fun things to do, important deadlines or other things important to them.

Address Things Immediately

The more I avoided reading messages, the more they piled up in my inbox. At some point, they became uncontrollable.

What other things should we address immediately or they’ll get out of control?

Mail. Why do people keep mail knowing that they are not going to read it? There is an option to opt out of receiving it.

Relationships. Disagreements that are not addressed immediately can result in hurt feelings, miscommunication, misunderstandings and break-ups.

Disobedient children. When children are disciplined immediately for their actions, it reduces the likelihood of repeat behavior.

As these examples show: some things are most effective when addressed immediately.

Remove Things that Serve No Purpose

Some messages in my inbox won’t be read, regardless of who sent it or how appealing the subject line is. This led me to wonder: “Why do I continue to get messages that serve no purpose? Why won’t I just unsubscribe to ensure they don’t come to my inbox anymore?”

I then thought about the old magazines that “I’ll read later” that are collecting dust in the corner. What about the people who are just “there” in my life? That led me to thinking about the other physical, spiritual and emotional clutter I’m harboring, consciously and unconsciously.

People tend to keep things with that notion that they’ll use it “eventually”, and “eventually” never comes around. If something is not used within a year, get rid of it.

The Result of Cleaning My Inbox

I knew that lack of action on my part affected me emotionally, but I didn’t know to what degree. This experience has taught me to

Address and discard messages immediately
Delete most messages by the end of that week
Make time during the day to read messages
Unsubscribe to messages that are no longer useful
Keep messages in my inbox under 300 total

Most importantly, I am happy and free.

What About You?

Have you ever let your email box get out of control? What were some of your feelings and lessons as you cleaned it?

Image credit: Tumisu/Pixabay, Geralt/Pixabay, Skeeze/Pixabay