It's shrinking

So in my previous post, I mentioned the new system that I was going to try to get my email in box under control.  I am thrilled to report that in less than 1 week, I have been able to take my email inbox from over 1,200 emails down to less less than 10!  And a few of the 10 that are left are there to help me remember some things I need to take care of in the upcoming week.  

Now I did not accomplish this in just one song a day like I had planned, but it was pretty close.  I have had to rest more often than not over the last week due to a flare up of a health issue so I was not feeling very productive on anything else.  But, even from bed, I could find the time two or three times a day to delete emails on my ipod for the length of one song.  And instead of feeling down that I had to spend so much time resting this week, I am excited and feeling like I have achieved a big goal since my email has been a constant source of annoyance for me.

So what's next?  For email, I will keep deleting new emails for the length of one song each day so the number does not rise back up again.  And since I will not have so many emails to deal with, I am going to try and figure out how to unsubscribe from anything that I do not really want hitting my email inbox on a routine basis.

As for what my next step in keeping my life simple, I think it will be going to bed and trying to get a good night's sleep.  Maybe then I will feel well enough to tackle something in my room, or have another idea like my email one.  Good night all.

A Spoonful of Sugar

I hate my email inbox.  There is always too much email in it.  It is hard to weed out the junk, the useless and the out of date to get to emails that I might actually want.  I don't check it as often as I want because the prospect of over 1,000 emails is so overwhelming.  Periodically I take a half hour or more weeding out and deleting emails.  I always feel like I am trying to dig myself out of a hole but the dirt keeps just falling back in on top of me.  I have tried many ways to fix this, but to no avail.

But today I had a new idea and am excited to try it out to see if it works long term.  I was sitting in bed because my chronic pain had flared up and I needed to rest.  My ipod was on, with my "cleaning" playlist on because before I realized I needed to rest I had planned to clean my room.  Since that was out, I decided to check my email.

Now I need to add an aside here.  I just recently got a ipod and I do not really completely understand how to use it.  So I did not know how to turn the music off when I went to my email.  But that turned out to be a good thing.

Just I finished checking the email that came in that day, the playlist went to a song I had not heard in a while.  I wanted to listen to it, so I decided to go through my inbox for just the length of time the song was on and delete any obvious junk mail.  I focused on emails I did not even have to open to know I did not need them.  No thought was required.  Just a few minutes enjoying an old song.

Funny thing was, by the time the song ended, my inbox was decreased by over 30 emails and I had fun doing it. I guess a spoonful of sugar really does make the medicine go down.

So this will be my new daily email routine.  Hopefully the result will be a much smaller email inbox and time to listen to some good music that I never seem to have the time to enjoy.

Where did all my spoons go?

I have known for a while now that my room, my home, my mind and basically my whole life is too cluttered - physically, mentally and emotionally.  The clutter is starting to make it hard to enjoy life and is exhausting.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a candidate for a hoarding reality show or anything.  In fact, to most people, things would not look so bad.  But it is all just getting to be too much for me.  So I decided that it is time for a change.  It is time to figure out where I keep losing my spoons.

This is not going to be an easy journey for me.  I am not young (pushing 40) and lifetime habits are hard to break.  I may not succeed.  But I need to try. Because of my health, I will need to make this change in small bits over a long period of time.  Some things I try will work and others will not.  At times I will feel like I am failing and want to give up.  I will need (and know I will get) support from friends and family to keep going.  And that is OK.  To paraphrase Martin Luther King, you don't need to see the whole staircase to take the first step.

So this is the beginning of my journey to figure out where all my spoons have gone and get them back where they belong.  Wish me luck!

P.S.  If you are reading this and wondering why I seem to be obsessed with spoons, take a minute to read this.  The Spoon Theory.  It will not only explain my seeming obsession with spoons but will also give you a true easy to understand idea of what my day to day life is really like.