Email Inbox Organization--Three Steps

This is a follow up to my previous post e-hoarding

I’m nervous today. I cleaned out my email over the past week. I worry because I might have deleted something I needed.  But it had to be done. My inbox looked worse than my dining room table.

What I started with:                        
1500 unread emails. Almost 5000 kept emails. 22 folders. Chaos.
I Googled organizing email and found I’m not alone in being overwhelmed by digital stuff. I found over a million sites about this. I picked a few—referenced at the bottom. Most of mine has come from friends’ ideas.

My Three Part System
Part One: Clean It Out
If you don’t do this first you’ll be trying to organize things you don’t even need or want. I don’t know how long you should keep something, but I’m sure it’s not ten years on the internet. Even the IRS isn’t that strict.
I’m down to about 150 kept emails. It still sounds like a lot. There were some emails I’ve reread and referenced so I kept those. Most are from ongoing projects that will be deleted once the project is finished. The time frame to allow to do this depends on how much time you have and how many emails. Like I said, mine took a week.
Part Two: Make a System
I thought about the subjects of things I do and made folders to correspond. Then the move from inbox to the folders began.  I ended up with 6 folders and one with 4 subfolders—9 folders total. It works because of the various emails I have to save.
Voila! Empty inbox and emails where I can find them.
Part Three: Maintenance and Modification
I hate checking email. I also read that if you check it too much you get more back. Most sites said twice, maybe three times a day. So, I’m starting with twice.

Of course this system may need tweaking, so I’ll modify as I go.  But now it’s doable.
Your system and checking will look different, of course. You may have to check more often due to work. Or less often if you're lucky.

What I Have Now
Empty inbox. About 150 saved mails. 6 folders and 4 subfolders. Organized Mail.
Of course I still have the concern over deleting things. But I like my organized email, so I’ll just have to get over the other.
My system is simple, but I don’t do a whole lot of work with email. It’s more for contact and connection. So, if you’d like more in-depth and information on all the other things available check out:
Organizing Your Email Inbox
13 Tips to Organizing Your Inbox 
Revive Your Inbox  --this one is the most in-depth, and has a program to help you. But, the irony is, they email it to you every day for 21 days.
You can always Google search it as well.

How about you? Do you get frustrated with too many emails? Any organizing tips or strategies that worked for you?

e-Hoarding

apparently after 999 they

they stop counting

In the middle of all my research I've found a new type of hoarding.
Digital Hoarding, aka e-hoarding.
It's when your inbox, folders, pictures, or whatever digital media you can think of becomes as cluttered as the junk drawer in your kitchen, or worse.
I hate email because you get so much junk mail. Spam filters aren't perfect, no matter how good they are. And, all the social media? Good grief, it's giving me a headache thinking about it.

So, what's the deal with digital hoarding? Why should people worry about it?
From what I've read:
1. storage costs--personal and private. Someone has to pay for all these Clouds.
2. stress--having to look at and deal with all the stuff.
3. carbon footprint--who knew, right?

Hoarding is often a sign of other problems: anxiety and OCD especially.
For me it's an out of sight out of mind. My physical surroundings are in my face. I can stress over it. My email, digital files and pictures, they all live on tiny flash drives and clouds. So, I only have to stress for as long as it takes to read and reply to what I need.

But after reading the carbon footprint thing, I'm going to have to rethink this strategy. It makes sense, though, because technology has to be powered. It takes energy for this. And, storage plans for individuals and companies are not free. It takes effort to keep all this information safe and accessible.
I've gotten the wild idea to clean out inboxes and photos before, but I got frustrated sorting through so much. No sooner had I gotten rid  of one email when ten would pop up.
I gave up
And it all built up again. The most I've had is close to 5,000 emails. Sounded like a lot to me until I read of people having numbers like 25,000 in emails, ten of thousands of pictures. Wow!
Right now my big things are texts, pictures, and emails. I'm bad about not deleting any old things.
Maybe I'll have to consult an e-hoarder specialist.

So, my plan, should I be able to accomplish this is:
1. Daily look at email.
2. Figure out folders.
3. Delete any pictures I don't need.
4. Spend ten minutes at day doing this.
5. Don't get discouraged.

As adults, we worry about kids, but we should really take a lesson from the American Academy of Pediatrics  --adults need limited time as well, for our own health and well-being. We have to get over this idea that we have to be connected 24/7. Some think they're doing okay. Some look okay.
But, try turning off their devices, let the server go down, let rain knock out the DISH.
Then see what happens.

Are you a digital hoarder? What strategies do you have to organize your email, ebooks, and other digital media?

For more on e-hoarding:
Digplanet
Wikipedia--also has some good links to other sites.

Change Lessons from Hoarders



finished my stone walkway

In my last post I mentioned two favorite organizing people. The first is Donna Smallin Kuper.

Who's the other person? Matt Paxton

Hoarders anyone? It was the freakiest, coolest show. Aired on A&E, it chronicled the attempt to help hoarders when they were against the wall due to whatever—landlords, city ordinances, health, whoever. And the weird thing is, they weren’t all crazy cat people—though many had a few hundred cats. They were just people. Most were people who had bad stuff happen to trigger the hoarding.

Matt (and others) cleaned out their houses but the crew also helped sort their lives as well. They cleaned but the hoarder had to make the decision to let things go. It was the only way to break the cycle. 

I like Matt because he’s real. He knows what needing help is all about. He’s a good cleaner, but he's also got his own interesting story of addiction. As he alludes to, all he’s done is trade one addiction for another, but at least this one doesn't get his kneecaps broken intentionally.

Another sad lesson from this is many of the people who hoard have others in their lives—family and friends who suspected but didn’t jump in. Oh, that’s not an indictment. It’s just a comment. I always wondered “how did they let it get that far?”

So, what’s this all about?

I find it ironic that Matt’s who I wanted to post about on Wednesday and now I find myself on Sunday evening still trying to get this posted. I'm so far behind!

It’s about perseverance and fortitude to make the changes you want. It doesn’t matter how far you’ve gotten into the rut.  You can do it!
Change means sacrifice and letting go. On the show some people just couldn’t do it.  But some were able to change their homes and their lives.

So, even though I’m late, I’m still going to hang in there.  I’m still posting this.

Lessons from Matt and Hoarders:

(don’t try to Google them—I’m making them up)

 1. Don't forget your friends and family--especially those who live alone.
 2. Be patient with yourself. Nobody's perfect and on time every time.
 3. We all need a little help from our friends sometimes.
 4. But sometimes we will be alone, no matter who we call.


cleaned out my truck--
does anybody know this pony?

5. In the end the decisions are ours alone.
 6. There are ordinances on the number of cats you can have.
 7. Nobody allows coyotes to be kept. (well, that was my discovery)

Lasting change takes time.
The two questions we have to ask ourselves:
1. Do I want to change?
2. What am I willing to let go of for it?

p.s.--my house is not a hoarder house, but Clean Sweep would have fun in it.

Action! Listening to the Voice(s)

In the first few posts I was thinking about why I want to clean. What's the point of home organization? I'm single. I should be out doing stuff. (I guess if I want friends over....)
I could expound on all the touchy-feely stuff until the cows come home but I still won't be where I want to be and I'll have cows in my yard.  Plus, I'm bored with that right now.
Action!
Here's my plan for actually organizing. I don't remember what words I used.
Home discovery. That's right.

the  jar is in  the center

Wow, don't I sound pretentious?
So, anyway--Action, yeah.

My Home Discovery Plan.
I gave my rooms spiffy names and wrote them on some paper. Then I put them in a jar.
Each day I'll pull a name out and work on that room for one hour. It doesn't have to be a full one hour at a time. It can be broken into intervals, especially since some days I don't have a whole hour time block, but lots of 5 or 10 minutes here and there.
Some people like to go room by room. I thought about that. But, I get bored easily. So I thought this way I can work with my self-proclaimed ADHD and not have to focus for long in one spot.
(I know it's not really ADHD, but it sounds as important as Home Discovery!)
My plan for this mission is to post on Sundays and Wednesdays. I won't give the boring low-down, but just update everyone on my progress.

If I can, I'll find a link to some other cool cleaning or organizing site or some touchy-feely kind of something.
Today's link will be brought to you by one of my two favorite organizing people: Donna Smallin Kuper at DeClutter Your Life . Check out her books and her blog. I love this month's unclutter tips, but going through the history is so worth it, too.

Recently I think Donna has taken up residence in my head. When I want to buy something she says "Do you really need that? Are you really going to use that?"  Sometimes I just say What Would Donna Do?
Yesterday apparently she would put back two writing magazines, three books on creativity and --irony--organizing, two Dr. Who comics, and a Sandman Graphic Novel. The last killed me because it was a special edition.
But Voice Donna said "Don't you have that one already? In fact, don't you have them all?"
I left Books-A-Million without so much as a coffee.
You're killing me, Donna! 


So, today's room was the Wild and Sunny Room. (Aka--the dining room) I was surprised that I found enough things to do that it took me a whole 57 minutes to finish straightening it. This worries me since that's my smallest space! Had to go through lots of papers on the table, but there's more than one place in my house that's got lots of papers. EEEK!




If you're reading this, any thoughts on organizing for those who don't have much time and nobody to delegate to? Any favorite decluttering sites?

First Podcast

Scary, but here's the sound of my voice. This is to kick off my posts on what I call my pilgrimage to creativity, starting with my home.
(Now doesn't that sound esoteric?)


Download this episode (right click and save)

Single Household

Oh no! not another organization site!
Before you panic—it’s not the same. This is a site for truly single people. No kids, maybe not even a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Organizing tips--think about what you find—or better yet—search and then come back. What kind of advice do you get? Things like “enlist your family” “Teaching your kids”

I have a fish. I can’t foresee enlisting his help.

As you may have guessed—I’m single, no kids, only pet is a baby Beta.
One thing I do have? Stuff. Stuff that breaks, stuff that gets dirty, needs to be washed, repaired, replaced.
Another thing I have? To go to work. I’m a single income household.  

It’s aggravating because people act like if you live by yourself you have all this time to get things done. And if you don’t have kids and a spouse you don’t have a lot of things to clean.
 
Ha, ha, ha, ha…ok let me stop laughing before I answer this.

There’s this great scene in Disney’s Enchanted movie where Giselle sings and the city creatures come and help her clean. Now, I understand you really don’t want vermin in your house, but if the rats are mopping and the roaches are cleaning the toilet….

I’ve been looking for a plan, but everything involves creating all these family meals, enlisting help from spouse and kids, doing all these cool check lists. Those are all okay, but my fish can’t get out of his tank, I’m not too keen on inviting the neighbor’s dog for help. Who has time for checklists?
And yes, I could hire someone to do things, but, remember single income household.
I’ve been wanting to get things together-home, work, writing, life in general, but I realize that may be a hopeless task. But, if it can’t be together it can be at least in the same vicinity of each other.
So, that’s what this is going to be about—me putting things in the same vicinity of each other. I hope through my journey to:

1.     Come up with ideas others can use.

2.     Find others who have ideas.

3.     Be more accountable because I’m posting it all on the blog.

4.     Have a more organized home.

How will I do this? I said above not a big check list kind of girl, but probably need some kind of plan…more on that in the next post.

For now though…
A site on organizing I keep going back to: Declutter Your LIfe
Any thoughts? What is your organizing, cleaning, lack there of routine?

Coming Back

 
So I said I wasn't going to blog here any more, but now I'm back, at least for a while. I still have my other site: creatingwordlenik.com over at weebly, though, too. Those who've been here before will notice the new look. Those who haven't, well, welcome!

 

To start, I'm returning as a part of an online class I'm taking:



Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners

Robin Sellers is the instructor.

old houses in Lake Charles--
oh, the stories they could tell!

So far it's been fun. I think I'm jumping ahead, though, and posting before I'm supposed to.

Such an over achiever....

 

If you've never taken an online class, check out ed2go--there's a lot of good stuff.

If you've wanted to learn how to set up a hosted blog--and actually have fun doing it, take this class. I thought I knew some stuff, but I really just knew enough to be dangerous. I'm especially excited to learn about podcasting. I've never done that before.

 

More to come on what I'm posting here.....