Tidying up my e-mail… tidying up my life.

I’m kind of an e-mail pack rat.

Tonight I decided that I was going to go through all 30,000 e-mails waiting in my inbox. 23,000 of them remained unread (read: spam).

It amazes me how much my life changed from 2006 to now (yes. I have e-mails from 2006. Can you believe it?!). What is even more apparent: the number of weight loss sites I have joined, been a part of, and at the very least signed up for. My quest to lose weight and change my life was laid out right in front of me in a smattering of different weight loss communities. Sites like Spark People, Calories Plus, and Weight Watchers (a few times before this time)… all wanting the same thing– an active member in moi and all begging me to come back.

I had good intentions with these sites. I think I hoped against hope that perhaps I could find a community that would magically keep me motivated. Or rather that some weight loss fairy dust would bounce off of the site-success stories and onto me.

But then… I have always sort of tried to find my self worth in other people. You may not know this about me, but I am an expert compliment fisherman.

There have been times in my life where I have ranged my commitment to this journey from overly committed to laughingly non-committal. It is similar to the way I can be with computer operating systems, general software or scanning software. Heck… even makeup. Sometimes I am feeling it. Sometimes I am not.

This time… my commitment has wavered here and there but for the most part, I have been actively trying to keep myself on track. Thankfully, I have only gained back 6.4 pounds. And let’s be honest… a gain is never that great. It doesn’t make us feel good and for me… knowing that I actively sort of sabotaged myself for the last month gives me a different perspective on things.

My Weight Watchers leader has this perspective on losing weight and getting healthy: “Fail to plan? Plan to fail.”

So as I sit here tidying up my e-mail, I recognize that e-mail isn’t the only thing that needs tidying. I need to sit down and have a new plan. Not just a “kind of” plan.

Today is the day I recommit to myself and tidy up.

Would you look at that? My inbox is now empty.

P.S. Just out of curiosity — how many of you WordPress users have upgraded to the latest 3.0? I’m kind of dragging my feet on the switch– I have to admit.

7 thoughts on “Tidying up my e-mail… tidying up my life.”

I am scared to upgrade! Please let me know if you do it and if it goes smoothly or not. I keep seeing it staring at me.

I hate clutter. That includes my inbox. I have to clear stuff out fast. I have lots of folders for stuff I need to keep. And I even go through and clean out my “sent” stuff now and then. Crazy, I know. I can’t believe how many you had!

Planning is good. Recommitting is good. I’m going to join you as soon as I get through my crazy weekend.

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K Reply:
July 28th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

You can do it Karen!!

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I was looking around at Entrecard and liked your blog title. I can totally relate to your post here; I use gmail and rarely delete emails so my inbox is ginormous. I’ve also started many online weight loss groups and not kept to any. Currently I’m in healthy-habits-but-no-dieting mode; basically that means I get some kind of fun exercise each day (usually hiking out behind our house or taking long walks),not eating after dinner, and drinking lots of water. But I’m definitely not counting calories or losing weight (at least I’m not gaining any either).

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6.4 lb gain sounds like a slippery slope but you can undo it. Work it sistah!

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omg. I just checked my emails – and I still have stuff from 2004! (That’s my personal email, though. I tend to be good at keeping the work email organized and clutter-free). I’m one of those sentimental types, though, that like to go back and look through emails from years ago just to reminisce.

The one thing I do, though, is delete each and every email from an ex when a relationship is over. I don’t want to reminisce about that and I’d rather not keep those around!

Now sounds like a great time to get back on track. Get your emails all in order then, while you’re still in the sort of organizing/tidying/sorting frame of mind, get to organizing meal ideas, grocery lists, time to exercise, etc. You can do it.

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