Confessions of an email hoarder

I have a confession to make. I have 9520 emails stored in my email in-box. Now I have no idea how many emails I receive each day - probably in the region of 50-100, depending on the day. Of course, all the important emails I have received, such as those from clients, potential clients and suppliers are stored properly in the appropriate folders within my email box.

The 9520 are the things I'm keeping 'just in case I ever need them' - newsletters, google alerts, networking messages - that kind of thing. And the thing is... so far, I never have needed them again (and even if I did need them, I'd never be able to find them amongst the rest of the 9520). So, I was delighted to receive yet another newsletter today, this one from American coach Talane Miedaner at http://www.lifecoach.com/ which included an article entitled 'How to get rid of email clutter - Part 2'. I'm copying it below for you, just in case you're an email hoarder too. (I particularly like the less radical method and I'm going to adopt it just as soon as I finish typing this posting.)

How To Get Rid Of E-Mail Clutter, Part II

OK all you members of the "E-Mail Delete Club" - how did it go this week? Did you get rid of a bunch of emails? Here are some more tips to keep you going (or get you started) clearing out all that email clutter.

The Radical Method. The award for the best tip actually goes to my cat, Sweet Pea, who jumped on my keyboard one morning and somehow managed to delete all the e-mails from my inbox in one fell swoop. For a moment, I stared at the blank computer screen in horror and panic. The next moment I felt a tremendous sense of relief. Hooray! I didn't have to do all those emails. Then it dawned on me that all those e-mails were probably sitting in my delete folder. Darn! I'd still have to deal with them. I opened the file and started looking for the e-mails that were important and in five minutes, I dragged about 20 of them into my inbox and left the rest to die a certain death. Whew! Once the emails were in the delete folder, it was easier to leave them there than to pull them out. The same for the inbox, once emails are in the inbox, they seem to want to stay there. The law of inertia at work. You may want to try this yourself for a quick and radical fix.

The Less Radical Method. For those who find the above tip a little too radical, here is a softer approach. Set up a new file folder in your email program labeled "Old E-Mail" and then highlight and drag all your inbox emails and put them in this folder. This will immediately create a clean slate to work from. It is much easier to maintain a clear inbox if you have a fresh start and mentally, it feels better. Then decide how many of the old emails you will delete each day from the Old E-Mail folder and stick to it until they are all gone.

Be ruthless. You can do it.
Talane