Thursday, August 10, 2006

Cleaning Out Email

How is it that I had allowed my email inbox to accumulate ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED messages? (This is not even counting mail stored in folders.) I've deleted approx. 250 already, and I am hoping that by the end of the big purge to have only 500 saved. And even that is too many, really. But Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

In other getting-ready-for-the-academic-year news, I went to Staples and purchased the biggest binder they had - only five inches. I've got to find a way to edit the reappointment/tenure/promotion binder so that I need not ever expand beyond that point. This is no easy task, as I've mentioned before.

update:
I now have only 862 emails in the inbox. Still deleting. But can I just note the following about The Great Purge?

a) It is so sad looking at all of the calls for papers that looked interesting, that I saved, and that I never did anything with and

b) It is disheartening indeed to see how many emails I get from students. Generally I try to delete student emails immediately, but some always slip through the cracks. And let me tell you, I get a lot of student email.

c) I'm hungry again, even though I had a sandwich only two hours ago. And I feel like I want to eat something really bad for me (as I've fallen off of the good eating wagon, pathetically).

Update:
To all people who use subject lines like "hey" or "information" or "update," please be more specific. Your vagueness means I've got to do one of two things: 1) open each cryptically subject-ed email to decide whether I should delete or 2) play email russian roulette and assume that nothing of import resides in cryptically subject-ed messages. Neither option is satisfactory. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Final Update!
I have managed to whittle down my number of saved emails to a mere 243. This took 3 hours. What a totally lame way to spend one's day.

7 comments:

PG said...

I love the time of year where you get to clean everything up and prepare for the new semester. I have commitment issues with my e-mails. I just never know if I'll need them later.

Terminal Degree said...

I have about 900 e-mails in my old inbox. Yikes. I hate weeding them out. I should switch to gmail for everything, I suppose...

Rebecca said...

a) I know that feeling. I am always saving stuff that looks interesting and I never seem to find the time to look at them. When I finally delete them – without ever really having looked at them – I really regret that I might be missing out on something interesting.

Update: I so totally agree with this. It’s the equivalent of leaving a voicemail with just a name and number. Can’t you please leave just a brief message of what this might be about so that I can either take care of it or at least start thinking about it?

Final update: It may be lame in the sense that it was in no way enjoyable. But, hell, 1500 to 243 is a major accomplishment. It definitely wasn’t a wast of time. Good for you.

Jenny Davidson said...

I am ashamed to say that I have (gulp) 6733 in my inbox, I don't delete enough stuff as it comes in I'm afraid.... I am NOT looking forward to dealing with it, but you have set me a good example!

Psycgirl said...

I'm surprised to see you erase all your student emails right away - I save mine for at least a year in case someone comes back to argue something. Maybe I'm a little paranoid.

Mel said...

that's an inspiring decrease...every so often I start purging with the goal of getting to zero...haven't gotten there yet, though.

Dr. Crazy said...

Howdy all!

First Psycgirl - I don't erase all student email right away - clearly - but I do try to erase those that are just about coming to office hours or non-controversial stuff immediately. Otherwise, I generally do a purge at the end of each academic year of stuff I'd saved just in case.

Mel, I don't even TRY to aim for zero - that's just impossible :)