On Saturday I launched the "You've Got {Too Much} Email" challenge. Some of you may have missed it since it was such a beautiful spring weekend (around here anyway) and you were probably out enjoying it. If you missed the introductory post, you can click here to read all about it.
As promised, every Monday evening I will post my update on how many emails I deleted during that week. So here it is!
I deleted 578 emails this week. That's double what I did last week so I'm happy about that. Progress!
The dates on my spreadsheet are all Mondays to go along with the challenge updates. The free spreadsheet and free printable tracking chart say "Week 1, Week 2, etc." so that people can join in the challenge at any time. Feel free to modify them to show the dates you're participating in the challenge if you want to! Or if you want me to customize one for you, just email me and I'd be happy to do that {organizerhilda (at) gmail (dot) com}.
And in case you were wondering, I covered over a few folder names for privacy in my spreadsheet above :)
Also, I've decided that when I delete an entire folder, I will strike it out so I can see it's done, like I did with "Baby and Trip Emails" folder above. You don't have to do that, but I love crossing things off lists!
Side note: that "Baby and Trip Emails" folder had emails we received after our daughter was born (6 1/2 years ago!) as well as emails from our parents who were taking care of our kids when my hubby and I went on a child-free vacation to celebrate our 10th anniversary (5 years ago!). So many great memories in those emails! I always intended to collect these thoughts and put them into scrapbooks but I think 5-6 years is long enough to keep that dream going. Before I deleted the emails, I cut and pasted the content and put it into Word documents and I will print them and put them in my kids' memory boxes.
Done is better than perfect right?! I'm learning :)
A few notes based on feedback I've received so far about this challenge:
- I'm not saying to never keep any emails or that emails are in any way bad. I'm really just trying to help those of us who are overwhelmed by the volume of emails in our inbox. If you're great at keeping your email account under control, then I'm honestly very happy for you. In fact, I'd love it if you could share some tips with the rest of us! Please leave a comment below or on Facebook or Google+, to encourage and inspire everyone!
- I don't have an official end date for this challenge. Depending on participation and progress, I'll decide if it will be an ongoing challenge or if I'll pick a specific date to end it on. Some people are motivated by deadlines so I will definitely consider it. Let me know if you think that's helpful. For now, let's let Monday evenings be our deadlines :)
- I know many people are motivated by external rewards so I'm hoping to be able to offer some prizes to those who participate regularly in this challenge. More on that later, but make sure you're participating and commenting each week so you'll be eligible!
So are you in?!
You don't have to give any updates tonight since the challenge only started a couple of days ago {unless you've already jumped in and started deleting of course!}. But take some time to figure out your starting number of emails and get started this week.
If you haven't downloaded your free spreadsheet or free printable tracking chart, or you need more information on how the challenge will work, click here!
Don't forget to leave a comment below with your starting numbers and weekly goal! And remember to check out last Friday's Organizing Ideas for the Weekend post for more motivation and tips!
Check out the Challenges tab to see the rest of the posts in the series!
I look forward to sharing this journey with you. We're all in this together :) Here's to a less overwhelming inbox!
