Your Precious Email…Bah…Humbug!

Posted by Jeff on August 26, 2010 · View Comments

You know those 8,422 precious emails that you are saving in your Inbox?

Do you really need them?

Sure, you feel attached to them. You want to hang on to them because they represent fleeting moments of thought, of time but, really, do you need them? They just clutter up your Inbox and create anxiety.

“OMG!! What if I lose those emails? I gotta back them up!!” Before you know it you are spending more time on backing up those emails instead of doing productive work, like responding to new emails and deleting old ones.

Yes, that’s what I said…DELETE THOSE EMAILS!!

“But, but, but…they are important,” you reply.

Are they really that important? Are they so precious that you must keep them forever?

Well, you don’t need to keep them forever and I will show you how to figure out which emails to keep and which ones to delete.

I will share this secret with you FOR FREE!! That’s right!

For a limited time only, YOU can get my Inbox cleaning tips FOR FREE!!

This offer is NOT available in stores!

Are you ready?

Here’s the secret.

You really ready?

Here goes…..!!

The Secret To An Empty Inbox

If the email you are saving is important then you should print a copy of it. If you don’t think it is worth printing then it is not worth saving.

That’s it!! Simple, isn’t it? And you may be wondering, “Why does this work?” Well, when you print out the email you are likely to think, “Hmmm…that ink cartridge cost me X dollars and, damn it, I burn through ink quickly. Do I really need to print this out?” Printing the email forces you into a cost-benefit analysis. If you are willing to spend a few pennies on an email to print it out, then that email is probably worth saving so, don’t delete it.

But print it out anyway.

As a backup.

Just in case.

PDF

Filed under Latest ADD-Related Posts, Productivity · Tagged with Productivity

Related Posts (based on content)

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd-zoe/about/ Zoe Kessler

HEY! How did you hack into my e-mail box and my mind? How did you know how much my anxiety level spikes each and every morning when I look at my INBOX and see that, try as I might, I am STILL not deleting as many e-mails as I’m receiving, and, well – YOU do the math as you seem to do it so much better than me! LOL Thanks for the nudge, Jeff. I will step up my efforts to stamp out e-mail clutter. ….later…
Z.
Jeff

Zoë, how did I know what your inbox looks like? Heck, that’s easy. ADHDers are all cut from the same cloth. Some of us were cut from the hyperactive side of the cloth, some from the inattentive side. Still, at bottom it’s ADHD.

Jeff

- sent via blackberry
http://taooftaylor.wordpress.com Kelly

Okay, okay … 3206 emails … archived. Archived! That’s the best I can do, if I could delete them, I wouldn’t be reading your blog, ha ha
In Hoc Signo Vinces

If the old emails aren’t enough, I have 35 years of print National Geographic Magazine issues you can thumb through & review too….. If any email was important, needing a response, that person or organization would keep sending emails to you again & again……Most just want to sell you something…They like you just because they want the money in your pants. Just spam anything like that from day one. Do things which generate money, a tool to enjoy life or happiness…..Get rid of the Schmutz emails, that makes your A.D.D. worse…..They are just more Distracting Clowns in that Clown Car driving around in your head…..Simplify, Simplify..
Denim

Jeff, if you come up with a simple method that works to stop companies from sending stuff through USPS (snail mail) that at my house goes from the mail box to the shred box , then through the shreder in order to protect my identity from being stolen, then to the car, then to the recycle center, let me know.

My cell phone, home phone, tv service, magazine subscriptions, internet service, credit cards, banks, etc. all have my e-mail address but they still send unwanted, unneeded stuff to my USPS address. I want to package it all up and send it back to them, but that would mean more time and more money and would provide no result except they would probably throw it in the trash for someone to grab my identity.

A vicious cycle seems to have invaded all lives. At least I CAN delete electronic mail and I do.

Yes, yes, yes worthless comment on my part. I don’t feel better. You have something to respond or not respond to, or a pontification may be born. Guess I will call the “shred it on site” company tomorrow so I can pay them $250 to shred on site my precious junk mail. Do goats eat paper? Does it provide them with any nutritional value. Shut up Denim and press submit.
Jeff

Denim, if I come up with an easy way to kill off junk snail mail, I will share it with the world.

When I used to get credit card bills with various advertising inserts, I would send the ads back to the company. It made me feel good to do it even if it never stopped the ads from coming.

-sent via blackberry
Denim

Two ideas just struck me.

Magazine subscriptions send envelopes with “no postage need if mailed in the US”. Fill them with stuff from other people that don’t have your name on it, seal it with no return address and mail them back.

Make money at home ads. Yes, I ordered one in my 20′s. It is was a piece of paper that told you how to get people to send you money to purchase the piece of paper on how to make money at home. Set up a “make money at home ad” where people order a piece of paper on how to do what you did and what I proposed above.
Jeff

Ah…you’ve corroborated what many people suspected about those “make money at home” schemes.

-sent via blackberry
Denim

As if you ever need ideas about which to write, “make money at home ads” is another one. Order yourself one. I think I ordered from several people because I remember the quality of the photocopy as being down right bizarre. From high quality to half off the paper with the ink so faint you could barely read it. But I do believe I remember that the copy was from the same original. Before or after you order, ask who has ordered one. There actually may be other schemes out there. By the way, I just could not do what they suggested.