HELP! I am an inbox trainwreck! Cyclone, hurricane, disaster area!
Oh, it’s bad. It’s really bad.
31,000 emails and counting.
My poor co-workers break out in hives whenever they get a peek into the inbox. Our computer guy gasped when he sat down at my desk and tried to work within it one day.
Open tabs, open browser windows, open emails, it’s a mess!
The anxiety inside of me grows every day as I watch the number tick up.
Filtering. Yes, that should have worked. I tried, and it helped a little, but I can’t seem to get ahead of it. It only makes me feel defeated.
I have tried setting inbox goals for myself, getting through and dealing with all the day’s emails, every day. Nope, that hasn’t worked yet either. I am easily distracted … I follow shiny objects.
I need to set a plan in motion.
As suggested by Stephanie, maybe I take every single email that I have in my inbox and put it all in a folder dated today. Then I can at least start fresh in my inbox and pluck away at the old stuff. More manageable, right? Maybe (sigh) …
How about if I let someone who works for me into the inbox? I could let them work their magic in there. Can I trust? It’s a lot. I think that I am going to have to let this go. Elisa? Help?
What about starting a completely different email address? Would that work? Ummm … not so sure. You should see my dormant yahoo account … let’s just say it puts 31,000 to shame. We won’t even talk about it.
One might argue that my huge inbox is a filing system. I know Kathleen will attest. It’s great to pop in an address up in the search bar and have all the conversations you have ever had with that person pop up. Trying to sort through to the important one … absolute nightmare!
How did I get here? How do I get out of this? How do I keep it from happening again?
Maybe it’s my subliminal pack rat coming to the surface, manifesting in the inbox? That must be it. My closets are clean, I have minimal clutter around the house, and I thrive on tidy.
Yet, the inbox. The darn inbox. It’s all pointing to the inbox.
I am almost at my breaking point. Where do I go from here? I can see the headlines as the crown falls to the ground, clink clink clank. Kate fails at being an inbox manager. A chink in my armor.
I must get organized; I must fix this problem, aye, my head …
Overwhelmingly “Boxed In,”
Kate
0
