lighter

I just did some spring cleaning–in my email account.  You know how sometimes you get an email that you know you don’t need to open right away, but it has some importance to it, so you leave it unread which will definitely remind you to open it later and address the issue?  Yeah.  I had a lot of those.  About 25 of ’em.  (Admittedly, I was pretty proud at having only 25, after having whittled ’em down from more.  But, still.  They were there.  Unopened and unread.)  Book recommendations from friends, opportunities to teach somewhere when I’m already teaching so very much, invitations to join some group of like-minded individuals, interesting quotes, etc….

I finally went through and either read them or deleted them or both.  And it felt great.  I highly recommend it.

If you’re going to do this, however, make sure you’ve got some time to do it in.  Cleaning out emails is sort of like opening up a time capsule.  I had a couple of unopened emails from nearly two years ago.  I definitely came across parts of my life that were inspiring, stressful, happy, sad, exciting, crazy, busy, hopeful, and more…  So, you’ve gotta have the time and space to deal with that.  It’s worth it.

The first email I received after my “cleaning” today was from a theater on the east coast.  I never read these emails.  So, I unsubscribed, finally.

Man, I feel lighter.