Simplify my computing life and declutter my digital packrattery?
Uh-oh.
As a GTD fan, I have previously tried applying the rules of Inbox Zero to my email files, but it never quite works. I think this is partly because I check my mail from multiple machines: my laptop, my phone, and when school is in session the instructor's station in my classroom(s). Maybe that's something I can change--but it would involve responding to messages less quickly, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Hm.
Periodically, I try to clear out my inbox. I'll do the 30 minutes here, 1 hour there and succeed in getting rid of some email. I'll go through a month's worth at a time--but there is always more to do, because of the sheer volume of email I deal with.
I have 15,379 email addresses in my primary inbox at the moment. Note I said primary. I have high quantities in my two other accounts, as well.
As for photos and videos, I've got tons and tons of those, as well. But I'm not as digitally organized with my personal stuff as Christa is, apparently, so I can't give you a straight number.
I do have a serious external hard drive on order, however, which is specifically meant for the photos and videos and music, as they are eating up hard drive space.
Work files: I have a lot of those, but they're in good order. I could definitely take a look and see whether anything can be purged--but they don't worry me so much, as they're very well organized and I do use older files when I'm writing research-based material. (While writing my book this year, I regularly referred back to project files from 2005, and some as far back as 2003. Academia moves much more slowly than industry, and I suspect I have to keep more work-related files longer than the average person as a result.)
Anyhow, I don't have any quick ways of addressing these issues--this is NOT a day-long project for me--but beginning next week, I'll spend 30 minutes a day (per the tip in this article) tackling the email.
Wish me luck. Meanwhile, if anyone has good tips, I'm all ears!
Tips, nothing comes to mind. And I don't know why. I'm not naturally wired for much - as in, most things I've had to learn over time - but I feel like digital neatness is something I just do. Email box clean, filing system tree'ed, etc. I actually just turned my Day 14 post into a Day 14 and 15 post because I felt like I had nothing to add. I will say that if I have emails sitting around, I get anxious and depressed, the same way I do if I have dishes sitting around. But I also don't get more than, say, 20 emails in a day in my personal inbox and my work inbox is usually executable tasks that I can delete or save as necessary when done. I guess I'm just not that popular or important enough for this to be a big deal ;)
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