Goals 2019 -- May Update

Here's K!

Well, here’s my May update, finally! I find it a little ironic that in the month, long, long ago, where we were supposed to clean out our inboxes, I was remiss in completing my electronic duty of submitting my update! The digital activity that was intended, at least in my mind, to help me be more efficient and responsive to the necessary information that was coming in obviously did not translate, in this instance, in the way that I had hoped.

When M and I talked about doing a “digital cleanup,” my goals were mainly to clean out my email inboxes and to unsubscribe from the million and one junk mails (is that a word?) that I received every day. They came in because I once said I was interested or I once purchased something, but I never looked at them. Instead, I just gave myself carpel tunnel as I swiped left to delete them. I was able to accomplish these two tasks within the first few days of our endeavor, which made me feel quite accomplished. I cleaned out every inbox that I have, forwarded one account that I don’t want to keep checking to another so that I would be sure not to miss anything, decided to begin using that one account over the other (don’t ask why that took so long…), and gleefully unsubscribed to much of the junk mail that I receive. This is a process that needs a repeat as culling the accounts that you want to receive things from and the ones that you don’t sometimes takes a few passes.

As far as the results of this effort are concerned, I am still burdened by more email than I care to receive, but I think that’s the curse of the modern era. On the occasions where I had the opportunity to open my email in front of other people (mostly at work), I did receive several compliments on the tidiness of my email inbox. And, when we were in the process of interviewing new faculty, one candidate opened his email on the projector to find his presentation, and his email alerted him to the nearly 3200 unread emails in his account. In this moment, I experienced anxiety for him and wanted to help him sort through his email to whittle that number to a more reasonable double-digit one. Before this, I would have identified with him because there is always a point, as the junk comes in, where I used to give into the deluge and allow myself to drown in email. But, this small act of digital cleanup has been one that's made a big difference for me.

Going forward, I hope to keep my work inbox cleared out so that it can do double duty as a “to do” list and as a way to ensure that I try to focus on responding to the emails that I can right as they come in. I also plan to find myself on a couch with some bad television on in the background unsubscribing from more email lists in the not-too-distant future as this digital effort really was one that made me feel a little more in control of my life.