The estimated reading time for this post is 1 minutes
Email has been a hot topic this week and a Wonder of Tech reader inspired me for the topic of this week’s poll. Do you purge your email, loving when your inbox count is zero? Do you let your emails accumulate so you can access them later? Are you somewhere in between, deleting junk mail but organizing others in folders or with labels? Let us know by voting in the poll below.
Now that you have voted, I’m curious, does how you treat your email reflect how you treat your worldly possessions? Are you someone who keeps your things in case you might need them again or do you like to clear out your stuff to avoid being burdened by your possessions?
I have found that those who keep lots of emails in their inbox like to hang onto their stuff for a long time as well (t-shirts from high school, childhood favorite toys). But I also know people who like to purge their belongings but keep their inboxes full. What about you? Let us know in the Comments section below whether how you treat your inbox mirrors how you treat your stuff.
Also, if you are brave enough, add to your comment the number of emails in your inbox now. This should be interesting…
* Image by Keri J
** Image by Kevin Baird
This is something I have never thought about. I don’t know which one affects the other to be honest. I do spend a lot of time online. So I think it is the way I treat my email that affects the way I treat my worldly possessions. I sometimes think twice and thrice before getting rid of a paper. I say “I might need it”. The same goes for e-mails. I do keep some e-mails because I might need them. I am not sure I’ll, but I just might need them.
The funny thing is that I end up needing the e-mails/papers I got rid of and I usually don’t need the ones I saved! Gosh…. 😀
Hi Mouh, I completely agree with you! The emails I delete are always the ones I seem to need and the ones I keep I rarely look at ever again. But at least emails don’t crowd your home when you keep them!
Thanks so much, Mouh, for your visit and brilliant comment! 🙂
Hoarder.
Mostly anything related to business, I keep. My inbox is stuffed with translation-related materials dating back to… 2003, if memory serves.
“Fun” e-mails, I don’t even read.
Personal messages, I read some and delete some.
Old t-shirts… never held on to one for more than 8 years, I think. I had this Sonic Youth t-shirt I bought when I was 17… I believe it took me that long to get rid of it. I loved it to bits.
Childhood toys: I may have a couple but they have sentimental value, as my grandmother made them for me. I wouldn’t get rid of something like that. One is the green felt mouse in the photo that initiates my post, “8 things that make me human.”
Hi Bell, It seems that while you might be a hoarder with certain types of emails, you aren’t a hoarder with your personal things. Doesn’t everyone keep some personal sentimental items around?
You gave me an idea. I could do a poll on how old your oldest t-shirt is, but I’d have to figure out a tech connection first. Hmm, maybe, “which is older, your oldest t-shirt or the oldest email in your inbox?” 🙂
Thanks so much, Bell, for your visit, inspiring comment and wonderful tweet!
Great question! I’m a terrible hoarder and probably need to go into rehab. (Happily, I only hoard emails, not physical possessions!) When I saw your poll question, I did a quick check and realize I am now just shy of 23,000 emails in my Inbox. The problem is that when you have that many and can only look at 25 at a time, the idea of purging is just too daunting. Every once in awhile, I do try and purge, but quickly give up. And I do like the fact that I can always find an email again if I really need it. I save the most important emails into folders, but sometimes you do not realize how important an email i
s until weeks later. So knowing that it exists somewhere in my burgeoning Inbox gives me a small sense of comfort. But still, I know I need help!
Hi Kathy, No, I don’t think you need rehab. I think you are not alone. In fact, I think you are brave to tell us how many emails you have right now. No one else has confessed to that yet, including me! 😉
The purgers seem to be in the minority. Many of us appear to be using our email as a storage site for important information. So if you need rehab, the majority of The Wonder of Tech voters do too!
Thanks so much for your visit and amazing comment! 😀
What a relevant topic (to all our lives)? Thanks for bringing it up.
Everyone thinks (from the poll) they keep important ones and delete the rest. Have you gone back to see how many *important* ones are there? Because who draws the line of whats important, whats not? Its you again? So is it the hoarder you or purger you? Questions circles.
I always enjoy reading your articles Carolyn.
Hi iRewardChart, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, everyone seems to have email, according to the results of the poll so far. This means everyone decides on a regular basis whether to keep or delete emails and I know many people stress about how many to keep or delete.
Hoarders are probably reassured by the poll results (so far) and the comments to this post. But I’m wondering if we will hear from purgers too…
Thanks so much, iRewardChart, for your visit and very kind comment! I’m so happy you enjoy the blog! 🙂
Carolyn, aloha. What a great topic. As it happens, I clean my inbox regularly–deleting useless and filing ones I want to keep. Ironically, just before reading this post I cleaned up my inbox so, unless one just came in, my inbox has )
Carolyn, I get rid of things all the time. Years ago I started a practice that has helped tremendously. If I buy something new to wear, I have to get rid of something. Since I have been doing this for so long, I’ll tell you, Carolyn, it makes me think long and hard before purchasing. Impulse items may call to me, however, rarely do they go home with me.
My home is very open and I frequently clean closets, cabinets, etc. because I like to be clutter free.
Thx so much for a fun post. Until next time, aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, I’m so glad you posted. We needed to hear from a purger! I really admire your diligence in clearing out your inbox. You have a great theory that you get rid of something every time you bring something into your house. I used to do that when I live in a New York apartment, I had to! But I’ve gotten out of that habit. I should adopt it again.
I’m sure you get a great sense of satisfaction of having a pristine email account. And I’m sure plenty of readers envy you. But I also wonder if you ever wish you hadn’t deleted an email…It’s so difficult to decide what to delete sometimes!
Thanks so much, Janet, for your visit, great comment and awesome tweet!
Carolyn, aloha. Actually, to date I have not regretted a deleted e-mail. While I do keep my inbox clean, I have lots of e-mail files where I store. If I see value/potential value, I keep otherwise I delete.
Carolyn, I absolutely love my system of getting rid of something every time I bring home something new. If you were to go through your closet, other than special occasion clothes, how many items do you have that you have not worn for a year+?
In closets, I think the 80/20 reigns supreme; 80% of the time we only where 20% of the clothes in our closet–over and over and over again.
Best wishes for a terrific weekend, aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, Thanks for responding to my question. You sound very organized and a good judge of what is important in life!
I do need to clear out my closet. My life has been a bit hectic my first year back from England, but we’re a bit more settled now and I’m ready to clear things out. Closets, email, etc.
Hope you’re having a great weekend! 🙂
Somewhere in between, but try to keep it as clean as possible. Not only purge, but double purge; the double delete.
Unfortunately, social media has crowded my e-mail more than normal so it hasn’t been as easy to keep it totally clean. One day, I’m sure I will delete all…………………:).
What’s your MO?
Hi Bill, I’m like you, somewhere in between. I try to delete useless emails but keep important ones. I find it handy to go back a year or so in my email and delete the messages that were important at one time but are no longer important.
Social media keeps my inbox crowded too. You know what else keeps my inbox crowded? I subscribe to comments on your blog. That’s right, I get an email whenever anyone comments on your blog. That means I get twice as many emails from your blog as you do because I get an email every time you reply to someone (and you reply to everyone, bless your heart!).
Congratulations on the tremendous success of your blog. I seriously don’t know how you keep up with it all!
Thanks so much, Bill, for taking the time to visit, leave and awesome comment and post a fantastic tweet!
Yikes, I might quit following someone if they were clogging my e-mail. Isn’t there a way to turn that thing off? Since I have the free site, I don’t really know what you can or can’t do.
Kind of ironic complaining about traffic, huh?
Hi Bill, No worries. It’s my choice to follow comments on your blog. Please don’t cut me off, lol!
I enjoy reading the comments, it’s kind of like I’m still at the party. You do get a lot of comments and respond to each one, but I can handle it. If I get behind, I just delete the emails and head over to your blog again to read them in a string.
It’s fantastic that you are getting so many comments. It shows you are really touching people with your posts.
No complaints here! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
I am somewhere in between( majority 69%). I think I have a lot of junk stuff in my mail box and I cleaned it sometimes back but now I am almost in the process of cleaning up.
I use thunderbird as email client which means , I can search through all the mail boxes with one search box.
I really have no motivation to clean up my mailbox haha!!
And I do have problems similar to Mouh
Hi Ashvini, I completely agree with you and Mouh. It can be scary to delete an email you feel you may need someday. But if you go back in your email a year, you will see how few of your emails you really needed.
I feel about emails as Janet feels about clothes: If you haven’t needed them in a year, you probably don’t need them anymore!
Thanks so much, Ashvini, for your visit and wonderful comment! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
I guess I’m somewhere inbetween. I like my inbox as clean as possible, but I always end up having hundreds of emails in it. I might be too lazy to keep up with everything 🙂
Jens
Hi Jens, I agree with you, it can be really tough to keep up with deleting emails. I find it easier to delete them on my iPhone or iPad (one press), so I try to delete the ones I don’t need right away!
Thanks so much, Jens, for your visit, brilliant comment and tweet! 🙂
What an interesting topic. Interesting results because a lot of people seem to take the middle course – somewhere in between.
I’d have to say I’m more of a hoarder than a purger. One of the reasons is that I read almost everything I receive or at least scan it, and on my computer rather than on my mobile.
The other is that I’ve always been a paper hoarder and this seems to be the case with e-mails. While I delete a lot of useless or already read stuff, I also file articles, blog posts, information and personal stuff either in Saved Mail or in files on my hard drive.
Currently, I have about 200 e-mails in my box of which 150 are recent (since last week) that I haven’t had time to read (as I receive an average 80-130 e-mails a day). The other 50 are ones I want to read or that I’ve hoarded for, I hate to admit, up to and more than a year.
I hate to admit that, as far as email messages go, I am a hoarder. I cannot tell you why since at 13,062 unread messages in my InBox, I will never have the time to catch up. I do delete obvious Spam immediately.
Cleaning out my InBox has always been a looming task until I decided that it was not anything to feel overwhelmed about. Gone are the days when we have minimal storage. Furthermore, I like being able to search my entire email account quickly.
And no, I am not a hoarder in any other area. I hate clutter–in fact I am working towards becoming a minimalist (InBox excluded) LOL.
Hi Rachel, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I agree, it’s much better to let go of the worry and just relax. Think of it this way, you have a big database in your inbox!
If you feel like purging your inbox you can do so when you have the time. I find it helps to go back a year. The emails you saved, thinking they would be important, probably don’t matter anymore.
Thanks so much for your visit and awesome comment! 🙂