I’ve Finally Learned How to Deal With My Inbox

The problem, it turns out, was my mind

I’ve cared so much, for so long, about my email inbox. I was always thinking about it, it was always on my to-do list. I set aside time every day to go through messages, I tried all sorts of filters, and downloaded all sorts of sorting programs.

When I was an Assistant DA and reliant on email for almost every aspect of my work, it wasn’t much of a choice: keep up or mess up. I know that is a tough reality for email-bound professionals.

But now, I’m a self-employed writer trying to clear the decks for my next book project. The work to be done is on my desk, not my computer: three big books to read and annotate, a list of further topics to research, an outline to create. I’ve largely withdrawn from Twitter and I’m learning to say “no” — I had to find a better way to handle my chaotic inbox and stop obsessing about it.

It recently occurred to me that my computer always looks good, no matter how messy my virtual desktops may be. When my inbox is full, overflowing, deluged, bulging, and pulsing with activity, there’s no mess in my home. There’s no pile, no paper. There’s no sound, no smell. And yet my mind was still programmed to see a mess, feel a stress, do anything to “clean it up.”