Why you should read old emails
👀 Today’s tip: To gain immediate perspective, look back on your emails from exactly a year ago.
Your inbox is an under-appreciated time capsule, a detailed record of your plans and worries from any given point in your past. And looking back over that old record, as Laura Vanderkam recently discovered, can provide a valuable reminder in the present: that details that seem like a big deal in the moment are often quickly forgotten. “We are often consumed by daily matters that just don’t matter in the long run,” she notes.
Vanderkam’s advice: Dig through your archives and pay a visit to the things that once bothered you.“On the next frustrating day, take a look at your calendar and your emails from a year ago,” she writes. “Remember that these woes will likely be forgotten in a year, let alone over a longer time frame. Try letting them go now.”
📚 More from Forge on finding a new point of view:
The Mindset We’ll Need to Get Through the Pandemic
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