Yes, it has never gotten that bad before. Between NaBloPoMo, Black Friday, spam emails, and just being overwhelmed with work and Thanksgiving, it was BAD.
I have to tell you, that Before situation gave me the willies. I purposely don’t have email on my phone because I do NOT need another Task Nag. But I cannot stand having even 2-3 unattended-to emails in any of my inboxes. I hate stuff hanging over my head.
(I shudder to think of Rick’s inbox(es). He is far, far, FAR more laissez-faire than I…about EVERYTHING.)
I have never let my unread get beyond one day before, this was such an anomoly. And as it went on, it just got worse and worse and started to stess me out.
That was about a week. Some of that was Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Giving Tuesday, some was NaBloPoMo and comment notifications. A lot of it was spam. Some was valid newsletters. There were even a couple of real emails in there, but not many!
Teach me how to do this. I fear my situatuion is so out of control, there’s no coming back. I’d hit one button and delete all unread in a heartbeat but I haven’t found a way to get that to work. I have over 47k emails. to quote Coach the day we stared at him when he grilled us burgers and didn’t put cheese on any of them: STOP LOOKING AT ME.
47k? Unread? I sorted mine by sender, which made it a lot easier to figure out what I needed to keep or get rid of. I have folders for the ones I keep, too. Receipts, household stuff, that kind of thing. Almost 1,000 unread took me about 40 minutes to clean out. You could set a timer and do 20 minutes at a time, you’d get through it eventually.
I’m so sorry but this made me laugh SO HARD. I’m that person with a ridiculous number of emails. My husband is the “whoa! I’ve got five emails, better clear these out!” guy. We’re a hilarious match.
OMG good work!!!! My inbox is always overflowing. My husband is an inbox zero guy — drives him nuts to have any unread emails, while I have….1,029. Yikes.
Oh dear sweet lord, Julie, you can never see my email inbox (neither can Nance, I guess). I DID sort-of accidentally delete all my emails once, and because of that I am now an email hoarder. I DIDN’T CHOOSE THE HOARDING LIFE.
I KEEP ALL OF MY REAL EMAILS. I mean, I don’t keep shipping notifications once an item has arrived, and I don’t keep blog notifications, and I don’t keep spam or newsletters. But all real email, I put in folders. I have emails from my parents, which I LOVE going back and reading sometimes. I think I have about 25 years worth of emails in my folders. But they’re read and sorted.
30 Comments
Birchie
Whoa!!! Respect!!!
How long did it take?
J
About 40 minutes. I will learn nothing from this.
Elisabeth
Respect is right. Doesn’t it feel AMAZING?????!!!!!
J
Yes, it has never gotten that bad before. Between NaBloPoMo, Black Friday, spam emails, and just being overwhelmed with work and Thanksgiving, it was BAD.
StephLove
Wow.
J
I know, right?
nance
I have to tell you, that Before situation gave me the willies. I purposely don’t have email on my phone because I do NOT need another Task Nag. But I cannot stand having even 2-3 unattended-to emails in any of my inboxes. I hate stuff hanging over my head.
(I shudder to think of Rick’s inbox(es). He is far, far, FAR more laissez-faire than I…about EVERYTHING.)
J
I have never let my unread get beyond one day before, this was such an anomoly. And as it went on, it just got worse and worse and started to stess me out.
Michelle G.
Wow! Very impressive!!
J
Thank you! I felt much better.
Alexandra
That’s just plain scary. I want to ask if that’s a months worth of email or what you got in one day? ?
FYI, I once got 3000 texts from a company in Hong Kong all in Chinese. It took me forever to delete them all.
J
That was about a week. Some of that was Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Giving Tuesday, some was NaBloPoMo and comment notifications. A lot of it was spam. Some was valid newsletters. There were even a couple of real emails in there, but not many!
Alexandra
Still, a frightening number of email whatever their source.
J
INDEED.
Margaret
Nice job! I need to do this for 3 email accounts.
J
Such a pain, right?
Martha
Great work! I usually keep mine cleaned out, but now that you mention it, I’m probably overdue too.
J
Mine has never gotten to that point before, it was crazy.
ernie
Teach me how to do this. I fear my situatuion is so out of control, there’s no coming back. I’d hit one button and delete all unread in a heartbeat but I haven’t found a way to get that to work. I have over 47k emails. to quote Coach the day we stared at him when he grilled us burgers and didn’t put cheese on any of them: STOP LOOKING AT ME.
J
LOL – I will not look at you *looks away*
47k? Unread? I sorted mine by sender, which made it a lot easier to figure out what I needed to keep or get rid of. I have folders for the ones I keep, too. Receipts, household stuff, that kind of thing. Almost 1,000 unread took me about 40 minutes to clean out. You could set a timer and do 20 minutes at a time, you’d get through it eventually.
PocoBrat
I bow down before you, J!
(Clearly, you didn’t take the easy “binbox” way as I did.)
J
No, though I was sorely tempted!
Laura
I’m so sorry but this made me laugh SO HARD. I’m that person with a ridiculous number of emails. My husband is the “whoa! I’ve got five emails, better clear these out!” guy. We’re a hilarious match.
J
I’m with your husband, so this was a stressor for sure!
Suzanne
OMG good work!!!! My inbox is always overflowing. My husband is an inbox zero guy — drives him nuts to have any unread emails, while I have….1,029. Yikes.
J
I hate having unread emails, so that was crazy. I’m so relieved.
Allison McCaskill
Oh dear sweet lord, Julie, you can never see my email inbox (neither can Nance, I guess). I DID sort-of accidentally delete all my emails once, and because of that I am now an email hoarder. I DIDN’T CHOOSE THE HOARDING LIFE.
J
I KEEP ALL OF MY REAL EMAILS. I mean, I don’t keep shipping notifications once an item has arrived, and I don’t keep blog notifications, and I don’t keep spam or newsletters. But all real email, I put in folders. I have emails from my parents, which I LOVE going back and reading sometimes. I think I have about 25 years worth of emails in my folders. But they’re read and sorted.
San
Amazing friend! now how to make this last!?
J
I just have to stay on top of it I guess. I have sometimes had a year or two of read emails in my inbox, but never unread, that was unnerving.