My Email Inbox

My email inbox is a very interesting place. It's full (and I mean full) of email from all sorts of different sources.  There are notifications (I'm trying to remember why I thought I needed a notification for every new Twitter follower, lead visiting the website, or Facebook comment), announcements, (a new course coming up for parents of children with ADHD, a local non-profit board meeting agenda, and on and on and on....), newsletters (I don't even know how many lists I'm on, and yes, at some point in time I actually double opted in on them all), communications from clients and potential clients (these are the only messages I really want), letters from family (ok, I want these, too), and spam, lots and lots of spam (I can have a spam filter that is the virtual equivalent of the Great Wall of China and it still gets through).

All of this equates to hundreds of emails flowing through my email inbox.  And are you ready for this?  This is for only one of my six email addresses. The others don't get as much traffic, but one of them is coming close.

I love to read and I read very. very fast, but what do people do who don't read as quickly as I do?  How do they possibly get through all this email?

One of the things that really bothers me is that sifting through so much stuff makes it more likely that I'll miss something important.  I know, I know....I have tried different filters to send email to different folders so I can focus on the ones I need to see first, but there's always a glitch, and the last time I really tried that, I ended up losing more than if I had just dealt with the long list.

Another problem I have is that I seem to be constitutionally incapable of hitting that delete button as much as I should. I try.  Really, I do. But then that little voice inside says, "What if you'll need that later?"

The good news from this situation is that my experience has made me very conscience about the email I send out.  Oh, I have a long mailing list like most other business owners have nowadays, but I try to use it sparingly and judiciously. Do people really need to get an email from me 3-4 times a week?  No.  They don't. If they really want to hear from me that often, they can subscribe to one of my 6 blogs (or all of them).  Then they can have me on their computer screen every day, several times a day, or they can follow me on Twitter and hear from me even more often.  The truth is that if anyone really wants to hear from me, there are plenty of avenues for them to do so.  The last thing they need is me forcing even more on them through email.

 I wish the lists that I am on would have the same perspective, but they don't. They apparently believe that signing up for their newsletter means that I have given them carte blanche to email me as often as they want for any purpose.

That brings me full circle to the whole concept of the delete button again, or even better, the unsubscribe button. If I can get beyond the little voice whispering, "What if you'll need this?", I run into the voice that screams, "If someone took the time to write this, you should show them the courtesy of reading it." {sigh}  Really?

Then it occurs to me.  That's my mother's voice in my head! 


That's it.  There's no use fighting the mama voice.

About 30 emails have come in while I have been writing this.  I'd better get back to reading it all.

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