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You vs. Your Inbox
It’s Fine to Have 77,000 Unread Emails
You can be a productive person without ever aiming for inbox zero
I first realized my inbox was becoming a problem when I missed an acceptance from an editor I’d never worked with before. It was pretty embarrassing to send a groveling apology six weeks after the fact, explaining that her message had gotten lost amid thousands of other unread emails.
Not for the first time, I considered declaring email bankruptcy: mass-deleting all the newsletters, marketing promos, Google news alerts, and notes from friends, family, and work contacts that accumulated over the years. I’d give myself a blank slate, one that allowed me to actually notice the professional opportunities that came my way.
Yet I couldn’t bring myself to nuke my inbox entirely. What if I wanted to reread a note my late grandmother had written to me? Or look up which Black Friday promos a company offered in 2016 to better inform my shopping this year?
In search of a better strategy, I started asking around and found that I was far from alone in my email hoarding. Some felt daunted by their huge numbers of unread messages and told me about missing important emails, such as party invitations, because of sheer volume. Some had tried to get things under control; others had adopted an attitude of defeat.
Melissa Cuerdon, a health policy analyst, told me her frustration with her inbox has been growing gradually. “I remember feeling overwhelmed at least five years ago, once every store, website, charity, and neighborhood association started requiring email addresses, and I couldn’t keep up,” she said. “I tried organizing with folders, which worked pretty well—until it didn’t. Gmail updated and redesigned one too many times, and I stopped bothering.” I also talked to people who had pretty much given up on email in favor of texting or Facebook Messenger.
For Michelle Legro, the features editor at GEN, the 2,500 emails she had in her Gmail account became the digital equivalent of white noise. “I got very used to looking at a set of unread emails much in the same way you get used to looking at clutter in your house,” she said. “You forget at some point that it should be answered or has…
