Decluttering. A word that can strike panic into the heart of a “just-in-caser”, as in, just in case this might be useful. Just in case I fit into it again. Just in case one of the children might like it…..
And as a gmail-email addict, the idea of digitally decluttering my thousands of emails produces a similar reaction. So, I read Faith’s very comprehensive suggestions for doing just that as a fairly disinterested outsider, who had no intention of going down that road. But, I hadn’t allowed for how persuasive she was on the benefits that that could yield.
Which is what got me looking down the left-hand side list of gmail folders. I should preface what’s to come by acknowledging that I’m also a technophobe, and just do the minimum to get me by. Which is why I hadn’t opened up most of those folders beyond spam, except for managing to locate trash. Because, of course, there were some useless emails that even I have been able to bin, and do the final delete of.
So, then, looking at the other folders, out of curiosity I clicked onto “Categories”. And found four groups:
Social – empty (happily, my life isn't as bleak as that sounds)
Updates – to my surprise, there was a heap of mostly redundant emails. I quickly deleted a bunch of them – over 300. And am looking forward to getting rid of most of the remaining 1,200!
Forums – empty
Promotions – nearly four hundred, all disposable, and now fully disposed of.
So, in one fell swoop, thanks to gmail’s self-organising capabilities, I’d got rid of over 700 emails. And that felt good.
And got me thinking. How it might be worth tackling something else that I’d long ago put into the too-hard basket: following gmail’s lead by organising the chaos of my remaining thousands of emails into subject folders. Googling how to do that, I found an approach that looks to be sufficiently user-friendly to meet the needs of the likes of me: “How to create folders in gmail (step-by-step guide)”, with this link: https://www.gmass.co/blog/how-to-create-folders-in-gmail/
And after I’ve got rid of the 1,200 updates, I’m going to have a go at doing that. And who knows where that might lead, through the fostering of a more organised mindset.
So, thank you, Faith, for starting me down that road with your practical approach to decluttering. Which I’m sure will also inspire many others.
Anne Ring ©2024
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