I grew up in a family that accumulated possessions and saved everything. That hoarder mentality stemmed from scarcity and a mindset of “I’ll keep it just in case… because you never know when you’ll need it.” But who knew that in addition to hoarding physical items, there’s such a thing as digital hoarding?
Email Hoarding
Years ago, I caught a glimpse of a coworker’s email inbox and saw over 1000 unread emails. I was shocked by that number because I always went through my work inbox and had zero unread messages each day. My personal email, however, is an entirely different story!
I use my Hotmail address (yes, I still use Hotmail) whenever I’m required to provide an email. It has become a catch-all for subscriptions, sales announcements, coupons, and other notifications — though I still get some personal emails.
Over the years, I’ve signed up for countless subscriptions which has bombarded my inbox. Even after unsubscribing to many accounts or sending things to my junk folder, I still continue to get a lot of emails including spam. On average, I think I get around 100 emails a day so if I ignore it, the amount of unread emails easily gets out of control.
Cluttered is an Understatement
This week when I checked my Hotmail account, I saw an outrageous number next to my inbox folder. Though I’m embarrassed to say it, I’ll admit there were over 20,000 unread emails! To say it was cluttered is an understatement.
But, wait… it gets worse! How, you ask? I have a subfolder that I never check and I forgot I set up a long time ago to automatically filter online magazines and subscription-type emails there. That number of unread emails was unbelievable. That number… wait for it… was over 87,000! The horror! LOL. It was at that point I just clicked “empty folder” without even checking what was in there. It took well over an hour for my account to process that many deletions.
An Out of Control Inbox
How did my inbox get so out of control? It happened as a result of neglect, procrastination and avoidance. I can go several days (sometimes longer) without checking my Hotmail account since most of it is spam anyway and because I didn’t set up my phone to receive notifications. In addition, I usually won’t mark something “read” if I haven’t actually read it. (Maybe it feels dishonest or I’m afraid I won’t find it if I want to refer to the email later.) And even though I delete many unread emails, I’ll keep even more just in case I may need that coupon or want to read an article at a later time.
Feeling Overwhelmed
A cluttered inbox can feel overwhelming. As the number of unread emails grew, so did my procrastination and avoidance to deal with it. While I’d keep an eye out for an important email, I’d ignore all the junk mail and as a result, the number of unread emails just kept accumulating.
I realized that if I have unread emails from two months ago, let alone two years ago, I’ll never get to them. No matter how intriguing or relevant a subject line might sound — I didn’t need to save the email. It was just cluttering my inbox and my subconscious. Similar to physical clutter, the unread emails became an eye sore and served as an annoying reminder of what I haven’t done or gotten to yet.
Regaining Control
My inbox is finally manageable again. I also just discovered that Hotmail (Outlook) has a “manage subscriptions” feature that allowed me to unsubscribe to over 50 subscriptions with a click of a button. That should help in managing the amount of emails I receive.
I feel a virtual weight lifted by deleting all those emails. I’ll continue to work on regaining control of my digital life by dealing with it rather than ignoring it. With that, I’ll be tackling computer files and digital photos next.
