Tag: email

Posted on

zeroing out my inbox

Nothing in the Inbox? Nothing at all?

I read about this a few years ago and have been thinking about it for awhile, but never had the guts to really do it. Then, this week, I’ve got so many emails!

I’ve always had folders, filters, etc… and still thousands of emails in my inbox.

I read them on my phone. Read them on my laptop. Read them on my desktop. Most days, I read them during the day and act on them at night.

Yesterday I had stuff to do and so many emails — with a compulsion to read them all and respond to those that required a response — that it occurred to me that my day was being consumed by email!

So I watched this Merlin Mann video (not the whole hour, but a good bit of it), and I read a few blogs on the topic.

And I did the dirty deed. My inbox is now empty.

I’ve kept it empty all day. After Day One, I’m here to report that… well… it’s pretty cool. An email comes in, and it goes out. So far so good.

It’s so inspiring that I shared with my wife that I think I’ve had a major breakthrough in email. Uh, well, no big deal for her.

If you have any thoughts about this, please leave a comment. No need to email.

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a name (flash fiction)

It was just an email.

He was watching a video on YouTube, one suggested for him by the algorithm. It was something he would like, according to his usage. And he did. It was a pretty girl trying on hats while talking about a snowstorm in Canada and why she never learned the difference between term and whole life insurance and why she never would. Dumb stuff, but funny.  The girl wore a low top and made funny faces.
email
He wondered who was there with her. Probably nobody. Just her and the laptop’s video camera. Yet, she could be awful funny in her room by herself with those hats, talking about what it’s like to be really hungry for green vegetables — especially green beans — with two feet of snow on the ground and no life insurance.

She probably had family there, in another room.  Maybe her mother.  She was young enough.  Maybe her children.  She was old enough.  YouTube must be her hobby.  She spends her days at work planning what funny stuff to do and then at night, she makes the videos.

Then it came, with a loud ding. He paused the video while she was changing hats and snapped to it and there it was.

It felt warm because the air in the room was cool and he breathed less of it now.

Nobody had ever called him a name like that before.