sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

I have 744 messages in my inbox, of which 39 are unread. Some, for quite some time. I suspect I will never read them.

I think I last had an empty inbox in 1995.

I know it's good email practice to read, file, delete in that order, but I don't buy it. I like to leave a coupla hundred "current" messages in my inbox, that are easily sortable, and then I have about 50 "current" folders (on IMAP) and about 200 archived folders (on POP3), and three hotmail accounts for various things (weblog, leaving client stuff online before I had IMAP, and ... something else I've forgotten). As a side issue, I of course, have six email addresses (2 personal, 4 client forwarded addresses - I must remember to choose the right one when I send), and seven signatures (3 clients, 2 personal, 2 for specific volunteer projects). Don't you all.

I like to keep my inbox under 400 - that feels good. But a surfeit of yom tov means it's just gotten out of hand (and also, I have become American). Also, in the post yom tov rush, many people got email happy, so yesterday I was in a group discussion about something to do with Limmud, and there were like 40 emails. My head hurts. And now I can't find the one that says the thing I'm supposed to do something about, because they all have the same header. Whoops.

And as fast as I'm filing, they're coming in. And as fast as they're coming in, my organisation-gene (the one that will mistakenly perform any admin task before a real thing) is raring to go. I actually had to stop writing this email because more mail came in and I had to respond immediately.

Other people are different. I know. I have a client who I have emailed twice a week for a month and she's never replied. I have another client who never "gets" my emails, but only the ones with invoices attached (I cc them to the accounts department now, so he can't play that trick any more).

What am I talking about? Who knoweth.