Current email weight: 700+ unread
Goal email weight: Zero
Attack plan:
1. Educate ourselves on how to eat email better – consume all forms of advice, tips & tricks on how to better manage out the junk to focus on more quality email.
2. Create a realistic plan with SMART principles to achieve and maintain goal email weight, which we equate to being more effective.
3. Execute plan.
Simple. Right?
Wrong. Something always tends to go horribly wrong in Step 3. We oscillate painfully between our current and goal email weights until the Yo-Yo diet is in full effect. With this comes the volatile emotions of celebration, pride, disappoint, and guilt. Ultimately this exerts a toll on our self-esteem.
So why do we do this?
Because zero feels so sweet – as desirable an idea as fitting back into “that” pair of old jeans.
But, zero is a short lived state. It is a temporary illusion of control. It is not comfortable. The waistline is tight and just one excess email can cause the zipper to strain or even the button to burst. Either way, the fabric is cutting into your skin. But here you are, at ZERO.
Bravo! You’re a Zero 😛
But not for long. You barely have enough time to boast to others about having achieved this elusive goal and presto you are no longer there. And so the Yo-Yo efforts continue.
We need to KILL the idea of THE ZERO INBOX.
This unrealistic goal is as toxic as the svelte models on covers of GQ and Vogue. It causes us to invest profound amounts of time and energy towards binge purging, extreme filing and often an overdose on automatic filters and rules. None of which are healthy.
I invite you to stop the Yo-Yo email diet and to set a more realistic email goal for yourself, one that will stop the email anorexia or bulimia we inevitably end up doing to ourselves to attain and maintain Zero. But first ask yourself if that goal is even all that important? Are we saving lives with our emails? I hope not. And if there is a do-or-die situation, I encourage you to call or text me. Immediately. Avoiding the email cemetery altogether.
So here goes take two…
Current email weight: 700+ unread
Goal email weight: <150 unread with all urgent emails processed.
Lastly, I am now going to find that old pair of jeans and donate them. I will also chuck all my Vogue magazines. No use in holding a goal over myself that is no longer relevant, realistic or even mine to begin with. Life is simply too short for this bullshit.
Have a wonderful day.
Unlock happiness 