The Quest For Inbox:Zero

My modus operandi with e-mail is to leave “pending” items in my inbox, then file them when I’ve done whatever it is that needs to be done with them. Reply to them, take action on them, whatever. While that works out well at my job, it only plays to my procrastinating tendencies at home, leading me to have e-mails in my inbox from literally five years ago.

It’s fun interesting looking back at some of the stuff I’d intended to blog, but never got around to it, being that some of it ended up being mildly prescient / prophetic:

Fri 15 Dec 2006 | 4:47 PM

I’m not one to fall into the trap of blogging about specifics at work. Suffice to say that I have evidence that the high turnover rate in my department of late is likely to continue in the future. Our previous clockwork vibe is long gone, co-workers are complaining about one another, and our supervisor and her actions are unpopular in certain circles. The few people who have the best interests of the department in mind (myself included) are quickly moving toward just doing our jobs and the extra mile be damned.

Fri 29 Dec 2006 | 4:49 PM

I figured out last night why I’m so stressed about the possibility of losing this pregnancy. There will never be another individual exactly like this little one that’s brewing right now. Even though it can’t yet see, or hear, and doesn’t even really have opposable thumbs yet, it has the potential to be a unique human being. If it doesn’t make it, it’s not only a child I wouldn’t get to raise, but it’s a person who wouldn’t exist. It’s like some weird wersion of It’s A Wonderful Life or a Richard Bach story, thinking of all the people who haven’t existed due to miscarriage or abortion. Who knows what potential leaders or philanthropists were never born, but were, in fact, meant to be?

Then, there are some slightly more recent almost-blogs that are more applicable to my life as it is today:

Mon 19 Nov 2007 | 4:21 PM

[My old job] vs. [my new job] is like marching band vs. drum corps – no one is here who doesn’t want to be here. Everyone is all business.

Also? Seniority is directly related to a person’s proximity to a window. At least in my dept.

(Incidentally? I will shortly be moving to a cube two spots closer to the window, after a year and change.)

Finally, there are some random goodies that are fun any day of the week:

Mon 27 Aug 2007 | 3:45 PM

[Heard at work:] “…teach them their prayers.” Does God not listen to you unless you know the magic words? Mormons learn God’s secret handshake in the temple, though, and that’s no less ridiculous.

Fri 27 Jun 2008 | 11:30 AM

From a DBA [database administrator] at work, about a debacle he helped create: “Bah. That’s part of the job. They just misspell it: should be DBAcle.”

I still have about 80 e-mails in my inbox, dating back to January 2005 (the oldest ones are from genealogists and possible distant cousins looking to share research). Considering that I was way over 100 last week, I’m well on my way to zero.

One thought on “The Quest For Inbox:Zero

Comments are closed.

  1. a million million spermatosa, all of them alive. and out of there catacalisum but one poor noah dare hope servive.
    and of that billion, minus one, might have chanced to be, Shakespear, Newton, a new Dunn, but the one was me.

    something I found in a book of quotes when I was pregnant with you. ( sorry if I misspelled anything)