more heartful words, less wasted time
Friday, January 22, 2010 at 10:45PM 
Email overwhelms me. Big time.
I’d like to blame it all on the fact that I work night shifts, that I’m just too tired and with too small of an attention span from monday to thursday to actually be able to sit down and do it. Sure, that might make it even more of a challenge, but I don’t think it’s the main problem. I’ve been pondering ways to improve upon the way I keep in touch in general, these days it seems email is the primary way.
So, I've been thinking about the specifics of making this kind of improvement in my life, to clear the clutter of my online communications and make it easier to send heartful emails!
Clear the space – Truth be told my email inbox was, oh, 90 pages long. For reals. I’ve had the email address for much of the last decade and hadn’t really ever organized it. So slowly I’ve been trashing and filing all the emails I’ve ever received. I’ve tried to make it a bit of a mindless task, just putting things in files by who they are from rather than go through the content of each email. I can go through each category later (baby steps), but I just need them out of my inbox so I’m only left with emails that need to be answered. Now just to keep that up!
Become One - I actually have two email addresses. I like gmail vastly more, but have been on hotmail for so very long that it just seems like I should keep that address. This of course, means extra time. I’m sure there is a way to stream the messages from one to another. Simplify!
Pick up the Phone - What a novel concept! Ever since I went through a funk a few years ago, I’ve become really resistant to talking on the phone. The ring of it still gets me a little stressed. But truth be told, when you get me chatting and I get through being awkward, I quite love it. Actually hearing a friend’s voice and the natural meandering content of phone calls just doesn’t quite compare to an email, does it. Setting skype up on my mom’s computer got me excited for the day that I get my new mac and can actually have skype calls in which I can see far away friends too!
Send Little Love Notes - I often find that it’s the emails that mean the most to me that I take the longest to reply to, as I don’t want to just whip up a note, but want to write a thoughtful well written response. Those tend to pile up and become something I procrastinate on, which has them embodying quite a different energy than they should. So I’m trying to at least send a little “Thanks so much for writing, you rock, I’ll send you a longer note when I can” note so said person isn’t left hanging!
Make a List and Cross ‘em off – Seriously, if I actually make a handwritten list of emails I need to write, somehow they tend to be more likely to get done. I think it’s the act of crossing it off. Lists sure are a wonderful thing!
Unsubscribe - Its actually quite hilarious how many mailing lists I’m on that are actually quite unnecessary or irrelevant to my present day life. Especially in this year of not buying clothes. Do I really need to be receiving emails from stores on what their sales are? Absolutely not! Yes, even anthropologie!
I would love to know if anyone has any tricks up their sleeve on managing email. I do want to recieve emails from friends and have them trust I'll be getting back to them but just need to create a system that works. Do you set yourself a specific time of the day, a specific length of time? Do you just not worry about it? Do you have some magic solution I just don’t know about (um…like the discover of google reader…I’d just check each website which was mega time consuming. that truly felt like a magic solution!). How do you keep up with emails and keep in touch? Do share!
Reader Comments (5)
I'm terrible about answering emails. Now, they show up on my iphone, so I'll read them, but then I'll forget about it and then - oops, it's been ten months and it turns out that the friend you never emailed got pregnant and had a baby between emails...
I find that the best thing to do, actually, is the list idea you mentioned. As I read an email I'll jot down the subject so that I can find it again later, and then reply when I've got the time.
But really, the biggest help for me has been the ability to have all four! of my email addresses tied to my iphone so that I can check them all no matter where I am with the push of a few buttons.
I <3 Gmail as well, but I use Mozilla's Thunderbird on my desktop to manage the incoming messages---the web interface does nothing for me. I use the filtering pn Thunderbird so all blog comments automatically go in one folder and certain recurring things like yahoo group updates go in another folder. I can automatically see how many things in each category I have. I also have a Gmail acct that is only for family/close friends so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle w/ the 1,001 "today only sale at PiperLime!!!11!!" emails that I get 12x a day. These days w/ FB and other ways to connect, it's not like someone wouldn't be able to find you ditched the hotmail.
hi vivva!
this is why you haven't answered my journal questions!! hee hee.
i feel like i behave very similarly to you in re to email. so i should say, when you write me back, feel free to make it point form with only the necessary info. then there's at least that feeling of obligation gone. and i know i'd rather hear from you in short form, than have your desire to send a long lovely email eat away at you. i know you care. i imagine all your friends do. computers suck time anyway, i don't need you sitting in front of it longer for me.
i love you!
Hi Mixmaster... Nice to read your blog and see your pictures - below, the one of the shells with the faded skyline, in particular,is beautiful! I too struggle with this email thing, and have been doing email in the morning via laptop before work, which gives me a set amount of time so I tend to write short clips. That said, I've been feeling like there's way too much staccato email and not enough real mail these days. So despite the recent Canada Post hike, I've decided to stretch Christmas Cards (which I don't do) to all year and send one person a month a real note. We have this fabulous printmaker around the corner who makes lovely cards that I want to write in, and there are lots of dessert and coffee places to sit in for a quiet moment at lunchtime. Where are you at these days, mailing address wise? Don't write a long note, just send me your mail locates at my sympatico account :-)
Lots of love,
e
i have 3 emails. 1 for work. 1 for my blog (i dont blog under my own name so i like to keep a separate one for that) and my personal email with hotmail that i have had for the last decade.
i only subscribe to things that i read. if i start skipping them over, i promptly unsubscribe.
i dont have more than one page on my inbox. i always categorise them into easily identifiable folders, if i want to keep them. or else, they get promptly deleted once i've replied. work emails of course i dont delete. ever. but all are categorised into folders. unreplied ones are marked in order of prority.