Inbox obsession

My recent travels kept me away from the home computer for nearly three weeks. Although my family had done an exceptional job at cleaning off emails for me, eventually they were overwhelmed and the list of emails in the inbox got longer and longer. It took me about three days, but I actually managed to get through them all (sorting, filing, printing, deleting, and responding). Do you get that - I actually completely emptied out the inbox - take that, world! What a feeling of power, of freedom! This is the first time I have ever managed to do this, and I recommend it to others. Kind of.

The fallout from the empty inbox has been surprising. I have found that I am suddenly very possessive of that inbox and its emptiness. I hear the computer ding that a new email has arrived and I jump to read it and respond, so I can delete the damned thing rather than allow it to continue to mar the beauty of my empty inbox. When I leave the computer for half a day, it’s with great annoyance that I find the emails have been sneaking in and piling up again, reproducing – argh. It doesn’t matter that some of the emails contain good news, notes from friends, needed items – nope, it just pisses me off.

I’ve waged this private battle with my inbox obsession for more than two weeks. Oh, what to do now? I guess I’m just going to have to surrender and kiss that glorious empty space goodbye, letting it once again be taken over by incoming messages.