Besides being a blessing, my electronic mailbox has become a source of never-ending frustration. It has contributed to one aspect of my life that, for many years, I’ve been trying to contain. CLUTTER.
Perhaps I’m not alone in this growing personal dilemma: to delete or not… to store or to banish from electronic access forever. This seriously troubling predicament poses a growing problem not only in my work life, but specially in my personal cyber filing. Unfortunately, I get attached too much too soon and too often… even to junk mail!
As the New Year rolled around, I told myself that enough is enough! This is the year that my number one resolution is to de-clutter my life, specially the ones that have hang around for a very long time in my cyber storage.
Yesterday I spent time checking my office electronic mailbox. I have two email accounts and both contained innumerable messages dating back from 2004, the year I re-entered the work force after spending two years in forced retirement. At home the bad news stared at me through the monitor: my personal electronic mailbox has more messages in storage than the total number of emails in my two office mailboxes combined. It was an eye-opener… and an opportunity begging for a fast fix!
Are you like me… everytime you get online to check your messages, do you get stressed just looking at your mailbox? If so, message deletion might be the only solution to your cyber woe. Feeling powerless just looking at your mailbox is not a good sign. It means that it’s time to pause, take stock of what needs to go to DeleteLand, click DELETE and happily move on. My BFF (best friend forever) folder alone contains a gigantic amount of incoming and outgoing messages.
This is when I miss the telephone connection. After a telephone call, we don’t have to go back and replay the conversation. Unless we’re one of those strange folks who enjoy taping their telephone calls. When we’re done talking on the telephone, we’re done. No messages to retrieve and replay… and decide whether or not to delete.
I don’t know why I fell into the habit of saving stuff. I wasn’t born and raised in the Great Depression which would validate my desire to save and store things. Perhaps it's pure and sheer sloth. Or maybe I’m simply guilty of cyber hoarding. It’s the equivalent of hoarding material things and both ways spell mental chaos. I’ve seen people with hoarding problems get overwhelmed by all the possessions they’ve collected through the years. The picture is extremely ugly. Hoarders have serious issues that they camouflage with habitual purchase and storage of stuff. If left unchecked and untreated, the material things take over and run their lives and they’re left wallowing in shame and depression.
I actually met a real life hoarder. Because of her uncontrollable purchasing habit, her life became a nightmare. She got into credit card debt, lost everything… including her husband. She ended up leaving her upscale neighborhood and losing her valuable material acquisitions. The last time I saw her, she was living in a safe house with other women recovering from various types of mental and emotional illnesses.
I don’t know why I fell into the habit of saving stuff. I wasn’t born and raised in the Great Depression which would validate my desire to save and store things. Perhaps it's pure and sheer sloth. Or maybe I’m simply guilty of cyber hoarding. It’s the equivalent of hoarding material things and both ways spell mental chaos. I’ve seen people with hoarding problems get overwhelmed by all the possessions they’ve collected through the years. The picture is extremely ugly. Hoarders have serious issues that they camouflage with habitual purchase and storage of stuff. If left unchecked and untreated, the material things take over and run their lives and they’re left wallowing in shame and depression.
I actually met a real life hoarder. Because of her uncontrollable purchasing habit, her life became a nightmare. She got into credit card debt, lost everything… including her husband. She ended up leaving her upscale neighborhood and losing her valuable material acquisitions. The last time I saw her, she was living in a safe house with other women recovering from various types of mental and emotional illnesses.
You might think it’s easy to just click the DELETE button on every message. It’s never easy when at the back of my head, I go: “Wait, I need to read it one more time.” Then comes all sorts of distractions that prevent me from accomplishing what I had set out to do. This time, no more excuses! I have to commit to de-cluttering my computers. In the end, I will be the sole beneficiary of my responsible action. Cyber clutter might be many electronically challenged people’s fashion, but soon it will be my obsolete custom. Wish me luck please!
