You've Got Mail

If you are old enough to get that reference, sit next to me (and I'm not talking about the movie with Tom Hanks.)

Remember when all it took to make you happy was to hear that little voice when you logged in declaring that you were in demand? Kept in the loop? Dare I say even popular?

How things have changed. Getting email is no longer an exciting event (okay, I'll admit, I'm still always a little excited to see that I have a bunch of new emails on the off chance that I get an email from one of my friends. Note I said off chance.

These days it's more likely that your inbox is full of junk from various places, past interests, mailing lists, and newsletters you don't know how you got signed up for in the first place.

Wonder why you haven't heard from me lately? Here's a little glimpse into my life.


My junk filled life.

In case I have to point out the obvious, that's 5037 UNREAD messages in my inbox. Unread. There are actually 7159 messages in my inbox altogether, but I've read about 2,000 of them. And then didn't delete them or deal with them in some appropriate way other than just leaving them to rot in the trash can known as my inbox.

This doesn't even count my Spam folder which filters the majority of ads for Viagra, bigger boobs, and low cost mortgages. Thankfully, Mr. G-Mail takes care of these for me on his own and I don't have to even deal with it. (Reminder to self - send Mr. G-Mail a thank you for that.)

If I had a mind to, I could easily hide a clandestine affair in plain view in my inbox because Vern takes one look at it, shakes his head, and runs away screaming.

The truth of the matter is that there are only about 10-15 emails a day that I'm really interested in or that are from family or friends or related to business that I need to take care of.

I have no idea who first said it, but clutter is nothing but delayed decisions. Even virtual clutter like email clutter. There are newsletters that I'm not interested in any longer but haven't taken the time to unsubscribe. There are letters from friends that I need to answer but I either didn't have the words or I put it off until I had more time. There are coupons and sales that I thought I might take advantage of but didn't.

I'm going in. I'm unsubscribing from newsletters I don't enjoy. I'm answering those emails to friends. I'm deleting the coupons and sales that are way past expired. I'm putting filters on the people who do nothing but send me forwards of chain letters that threaten me with bad luck if I don't immediately send it to 15 other unsuspecting people (although considering our last year or so, those may have some validity).

If you don't hear from me, shoot me an email. I might even answer.