For years I’ve lived with hundreds of unanswered e-mail messages sitting in my Inbox at home. Since e-mail is my preferred form of communication this is a real problem, because basically anything “below the fold,” that is, not in the first screen of my Inbox, gets ignored, often indefinitely.
Periodically I would get into a groove and file some, delete more, and answer or act upon others, without ever really getting the situation under control. But recently I’ve been on a roll, hitting magic numbers that provide new motivation. Last weekend it was getting under 300, on Saturday it was 200. After last evening I’m under 150.
My Inbox displays 26 messages in one screen, so theoretically my final magic number should be 25. For now, though, the only number I’m looking at is 100.
Now if only I could make this happen at work…