PROCRASTINATION
EMAIL TRAFFIC JAM:
I receive about 100 emails a day. Usually there are only a few that I answer immediately from friends or related to something I need to deal with right away.
Most are tiresome political polls and donation junk which I toss out immediately without a glance.
Some others are from sites that I subscribe to but am not using at the moment. These get flagged to file and read later, but often I am in too big a hurry to file them and they stay in an ever-growing list.
Others need attention but not immediately. They get flagged to read at a specific later date. But then, when the message reminder list pops up, I simply move the whole bunch to the next day’s date. On and on it goes until one day I simply can’t stand to do this any longer and skim them to see what they are about. At this point about half or more of them have gone past their due date and the information is no longer relevant, so they are tossed… or they just sit in the list dropping down farther as it grows.
About once a year… or maybe ten years? I finally take the email dragon by its horns and yank out most of its guts by simply deleting the whole waiting list!!! Yikes!
Just now I have gone through the routine once again, reviewing a slew of new emails and put the entire list off until this Sunday when I have a day at home with no plans… but do you think I will want to go through all those on such a precious free day? Taking bets I won’t.
And there is a deeper level to this as well… You remember the bunch that get filed to “read later”? Aaarrgh!!! And the sad part is there are lots of things in there that I would really enjoy reading if only I had the time!!!!
All this is really about PROCRASTINATION. It is a life-long bad habit… I get going on boring chores and tasks only when there is an urgent pressure to do it. There are just too many more important and interesting things to life than a perfect filing system or neatly organized office. Of course, I know it would help alleviate some frustrations when I lose long minutes searching for something lost among all the clutter! Just like those pesky passwords I wrote about in a previous post!
I need a secretary… And a housekeeper… And a gardener. Know anyone???
