I feel like I get out of today easy because I happen to have left my job recently. That said, my personal email inbox currently boasts over 3000 messages, and that's after several days' worth of active downsizing. Gross. Read all about it here!
Showing posts with label day 15. Show all posts
Showing posts with label day 15. Show all posts
Monday, August 29, 2011
Days 14-15: My Name is Rebecca, and I am a Digital Packrat.
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!
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!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Christa, Day 14 and 15: In Which I Discover I Probably Have Too Many Photos
Update: I decided to edit this post to include Day 15 as well, since I feel like they both - for me - fall into one post. As noted below, I'm considering online storage and I even cleared out a little clutter from my machine last night, so I'm checking this one off.
I have to say, I've felt at least some measure of enthusiasm for the previous 13 simplification ideas. But today's?
Not that I don't fall into the trap of using Gmail as my filing system or a handy way to be able to work on little projects both at home and at work, but I don't have enough files that need to be accessible any a moment's notice to warrant paying to have all my files stored and usable remotely like someone who needs to work from multiple locations. And since having a child and feeling the strange urge to take 14,377 photos and videos of her - seriously, I checked and am horrified - I had to implement an organizational scheme just for my own sanity's sake.
Music and movies? Also not a problem. At some point, my last computer died - or was it the one before that - taken all my music to file heaven along with it. And while there was, for some time, a part of me that considered trying to rebuild my music collection, I am married to a dude with more songs than I have photos of my daughter, so if I really want to listen to some music, it's not like I'd have any trouble finding *something*. I just don't have any music or movies on my computer and I'm okay with that.
But in the interest of making good on today's voluntary simplification list item, I'm going to look into those on the cloud back up services. Or another hard drive. Mainly for all those pictures of my daughter. Even though I put my absolute favorites on Flickr as an assurance that I'll never lose all of them, I'd rather keep all of them so when she's 16 and being a total meanie to me I can look back and remind myself of exactly why I'm not shipping her off to work in a coal mine.
I have to say, I've felt at least some measure of enthusiasm for the previous 13 simplification ideas. But today's?
Simplify your computing life. If you have trouble with too many files and too much disorganization, consider online computing. It can simplify things greatly. Read more.It leaves me feeling blah. Not that it's not a perfectly valid idea, but I didn't freelance for five years without learning a trick or two for keeping my digital life organized and accessible.
Not that I don't fall into the trap of using Gmail as my filing system or a handy way to be able to work on little projects both at home and at work, but I don't have enough files that need to be accessible any a moment's notice to warrant paying to have all my files stored and usable remotely like someone who needs to work from multiple locations. And since having a child and feeling the strange urge to take 14,377 photos and videos of her - seriously, I checked and am horrified - I had to implement an organizational scheme just for my own sanity's sake.
Music and movies? Also not a problem. At some point, my last computer died - or was it the one before that - taken all my music to file heaven along with it. And while there was, for some time, a part of me that considered trying to rebuild my music collection, I am married to a dude with more songs than I have photos of my daughter, so if I really want to listen to some music, it's not like I'd have any trouble finding *something*. I just don't have any music or movies on my computer and I'm okay with that.
But in the interest of making good on today's voluntary simplification list item, I'm going to look into those on the cloud back up services. Or another hard drive. Mainly for all those pictures of my daughter. Even though I put my absolute favorites on Flickr as an assurance that I'll never lose all of them, I'd rather keep all of them so when she's 16 and being a total meanie to me I can look back and remind myself of exactly why I'm not shipping her off to work in a coal mine.
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