Three Fearless Rules for Deep-Sixing Your Inbox Skeletons
By: Grace Cook
My friend Zara made a big confession to me recently. "I have emails dating back to eight years ago," she revealed. "I can't seem to bring myself to delete them. These are emails announcing job openings and party invitations. There are also some alerts from mailing lists that I haven't had the chance to open. There's also some chain emails that I might use. I've even kept some angry emails from a person I had a misunderstanding with years ago."
When I asked her why she can't let go of the skeletons in her inbox, Zara replied, "I use them to remember what happened that year. I'm sure I'll get around to reading all of them."
At that, I was rendered speechless.
Now, I don't know if anybody else out there keeps ancient emails for posterity or future reading, but, upon consulting the Email Survival Strategy Cashmap, I've come up with rules that will help email hoarders deep-six their inbox junk:
1. If you haven't read it in a week's time, then you probably don't need to read it at all. Don't kid yourself. You are never going to get around to reading the unopened emails from years ago. Any unread email that's over a week old and isn't from someone you know personally should be trashed. Unless you've just come back from a long vacation, there's no reason why old emails should still be crowding your inbox.2. Chain emails should go ASAP--no questions asked. We've all gotten chain emails. There are creepy ones threatening doom if we don't forward the message to 10 people. There are those containing jokes. There are some featuring videos or pictures. We don't need these emails. Keeping them won't boost productivity. If you want to laugh, got to humor sites or search for funny videos on YouTube.
3. If you can't understand it, then don't open it. If there are emails whose subject headings seem Greek to you, then don't open them. Trash them right away. Chances are, these are scam emails. Even if the sender appears to be somebody you know or an organization that you've been in contact with, don't click on it if the subject heading strikes you as strange. That's often a red flag for a scam. Besides, if it's really that important, the person or the organization will give you a call.
Sure, there are emails you can keep for posterity. But, it's rather curious if the emails you consider worthy of keeping include outdated announcements that you haven't opened yet. Why hold on to spam? Speaking of which, I'm wondering about the state of Zara's work email. I sure hope that particular inbox isn't full of skeletons, too. She has enough to deal with as it is.
Get a grip on the junk in your inbox with the Email Survival Strategy Cashmap.
