You’ve Got (A Lot Of) Mail

I have a love-hate relationship with my email.

I absolutely love that no matter what day of the week it is, regardless of the time, or what my mood might be, I’m going to be showered with a lot of attention...

...Via my inbox.

Even though most of what I get, perhaps as high as 95%, is a combination of information out the wazoo, promotional offers, and requests for donations – and has nothing to do with me personally – I am OK with that.

I am thrilled that without having to search for material, it is easy to keep updated with news and opinion pieces that touch on my identity as a woman, a Jew, a liberal, a Garden State resident and so much more. These emails force me to open my eyes and think about the universe beyond my own cocoon. On the flip side, I am often tempted by and succumb to the deals advertised on promotional emails which I don’t need and never would have known about had I not been on everyone’s distribution list.

For years, I’ve tried to keep up with the volume of email by periodically deleting and unsubscribing so that I wouldn’t be inundated with more than I could handle, but lately the number of incoming emails has multiplied: what started as 10-25 a day way back is now a minimum of 250 or 300, accumulating to a couple thousand in no time at all. Last week, I had an ENORMOUS number of emails sitting in my inbox, the majority of which I hadn’t opened.

While I have tried with limited success to prevent a burgeoning email situation, I’ve also done poorly when it comes to maintaining order in my portion of cyberspace. It’s a field I know little about and am fine keeping it that way, given that David provides all the tech advice and help I could possibly need; however, with that personalized service does come periodic lectures about inbox organization. These discussions always make me cringe because they require me to take on a more aggressive housekeeping mentality.

One day last week, I got a Google notification – an email, no less – which stated that I am running out of storage. I wanted to quickly delete and pretend I had never received it...so I did! But then I thought better of it and fessed up to David, because I knew if I didn’t tell him in a timely manner about this potential problem, I’d end up paying for it at a later date which would include his saying with some attitude that I didn’t see it because I had way too many emails to comb through.   

So, I held my breath and showed him the crazy message I had just received, assuming he’d figure out what needed to be done. It was no surprise that he came up with a solution, but it wasn’t a simple one. He ended up spending a big part of the morning deleting 108K...yes...108,000 emails, with me on edge the whole time that he’d trash something I'd want to have later. Of course, I’d probably never know, in all that inbox chaos.

I am relieved that this Google warning is no longer looming over me, and David is revved up that I might join his team of savvy email users, but I told him...not so fast. Keeping up with my email as I understand it should be handled feels like it will be an endless and tedious process, and I’m not sure I’m up to the task. 

In the end, I know it is to my advantage to keep things in order since, as time goes on, I’m more and more dependent on my online world.

In fact, my messy closet is probably less impactful than my out-of-control mailbox.