October 23rd, Mail...
What is it about mail that is such a challenge? In theory, it should be easy – whether paper or electronic – received, read, action, file or dispose. Simple, right?
I take the physical mail out of the box, much better at going through it and distributing it to others in the household within minutes. But then, mine goes into a pile. My real goal, open it immediately, pay the bills at once and file, look through the catalogs and throw, read the papers/newsletters and recycle – the only thing that should remain is something that requires further action. Instead, it sits, and hopefully within the week I sort it accordingly…like today. I add the catalogs and papers to stacks to be gone through at another time. (good multi-task if have TV on) Will set the bills up for payment right now. Then catch up on filing. Stuff to act upon is in a catch all.
It is sort of similar for me with electronic mail but WORSE. So many emails do not require immediate attention, unless the goal is to keep a clean inbox. I don’t have an ideal file system, so use my inbox as it, quicker to search than setting up a bunch of folders. I implement different strategies for follow up-keep emails as unread, add a reminder, move to task, (experimented with organizing apps). There are at least a couple of days I week I force myself to just go through incoming mail in order and take the needed action at once. Sometimes though, I am so behind, I use Mailstrom, an email tool, and delete, delete, delete, by received from (there are a lot of newsletters, promotions, retail, etc.) but the numbers never seem to go down. Haha.
Oh, to create the habit I know I am capable of…keep the focus on the feeling of discipline, being organized, timely, less the process and I could see the outcome I want. It is not hard.
Hmmm, do we get too much…day 99!
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