"This is where unhealthy habits come to die."
If you need a sign...
Hello, everyone! I was not expecting to post something so quickly, but I figured someone out there needed to read it, so here it is! I hope you enjoy.
Okay, I need to expose myself. Lately, I’ve let my inbox pile up and had 1,000+ emails. After cleaning the inbox out, I found that I had a year’s worth of emails that piled up, and the other end of the inbox sat around October of 2023.
As I sat there and sorted through the receipts, the junk mail, and all of the emails from Substack, I found myself deep in introspection. There were emails from friends that I kept, emails from school, emails reminding me of events that never happened in my life.
I found myself feeling a little bittersweet. I think of that girl starting her Master’s, making new memories, trying to make friends, and I’m so proud of her.
There are sad memories from those silly emails, but we won’t focus on those too much in this post.
I feel like I should explain myself. Just why did I go a whole year without keeping my inbox cleaned up? Or maybe you’re thinking, “Everyone does that. I do that. That’s not strange.”
To me, though, I like to make sure I keep things pretty tidy. Too many notifications on my phone keeps me distracted.
So why did I have 1000 unread emails?
I think the explanation starts with my job. I work an office job that’s very email-oriented. Every day is spent responding to emails—sending emails, responding to emails, and archiving emails. I work to keep my inbox very low and want to make sure I’m meeting the needs of my coworkers and others who have corresponded with me. Because of the nature of my job, though, I get somewhere around 50 emails a day, so keeping everything organized is a chore.
Because I had to do this with the job I started last year, my brain decided, “Sis, this is work behavior; we do this at work!”
And then decided to think that way. For months.
But I have decided. This is where unhealthy habits come to die, right here. Right now.
Okay, that was a little dramatic. But we all have to be, right?
To be honest, though, I kept putting off cleaning through the emails because of how big of a task it was to clean through. How many times have I done that though?
Organizing my closet because it’s too dirty, but it’s frustrating to navigate?
Planning a novel because coming up with storylines is brain-intensive, but I know will make me excited to write?
Journaling because the process takes too long, even though it’s rewarding?
We all have to start somewhere, though. And trust me, my friend! You’ll find yourself excited at the completed task, just like I was.
So, if you needed a sign to start and work to kick those bad habits.
Here it is.