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.
