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January 02, 2003
The Inboxometer
I use my e-mail inbox like a to-do list... basically all of my e-mail addresses (except for one that I use for class-related messages) all forward to one place a single master inbox that I keep in one of my accounts. It's basically a barometer of my life... If I have a certain number of messages in my inbox, you can tell how stressed I am. The messages pile up when I'm busy or otherwise un-motivated to get through them... which adds to my stress, so I think it's a pretty acurate representation. I often ask people to e-mail me when they want me to do something so that it will be in my "to do" list...
As of my writing of this message, I have about 250 messages in my inbox. This is really quite high...
I would say that I prefer to keep my inbox in the 0 to 100 range... I haven't seen a "zero" inbox in years and years... I haven't been under 100 since last spring, I think... Maybe this is an indication that I'm busy with too many things or that I'm being distracted by too many worthless pursuits, or maybe that I'm giving too much attention to the constant flow of requests that come in and out of my life. Maybe I should just ignore some e-mails now and then, but I try to account for every single message and follow-up and/or respond at some point...
But after a while it gets embarassing... I have messages from people that are over a year old and I've "been meaning to" write back to them... but with each passing day that I don't write, it becomes stranger and stranger to decide to finally respond.
Sometime I entertain the thought that I could send a message to everyone in my inbox that said something like... "Dear X, You sent me a message some time ago that I've never responded to and it has been sitting in my inbox for many months and it's become a stress-factor in my life... I've decided to delete it rather than worry about it any longer. I feel a need to start fresh... If there is anything from me that you've been waiting for a response about, please accept my apologies and send me a new e-mail about the topic." But I've never done something like that. It seems like a cop out...
Anyway... so, I will occasionally post my current "inboxometer" reading so that you can get a sense of how I'm doing in that area. I would like to be under 100 again soon. Don't feel like you shouldn't e-mail just because my number is high or anything... But for those of you who are concerned with my state of well-being... there's one measure that you'll be able to use... :)
Posted by Andrew at January 2, 2003 07:14 PM