In the past I would get a warning about my email size a couple times a semester which would then force me to check out and delete emails from one of my listservs and/or go through my sent file. But over the last year or so it seemed the size limit was unexceedable. Well, I've found out there is indeed a limit--I got a warning at 387178 KB.
Of course I have no idea how much that really is. I do know that I have 1500 emails in my sent box, about a 1000 in my Inbox, close to 4,000 (I am just relishing Middlebrow's, the deleter of all deleters, outrage at all this) in my WPA listserv folder, and almost 2,000 in my children's lit listserv. And of course, several 100 emails that I've saved in all manner of categories (cycling, E-Portfolios--there's even one from MB, Faigley pilot, Friends, Multimodal literacies, OED--I'm unsure what's in there, personal, Trips etc.)
Technology is certainly not simplifying my life but it is allowing for redundancy which for me, a person who could forget his coat in a snow storm, is a pretty good thing. Unfortunately redundancy systems unchecked can than create a whole other level of forgetfulness and chaos. Ultimately, I believe technology makes me a better worker and person as it allows me to remember all kinds of details I wouldn't be able to get my fingers on (like responding to an adjunct a semester after visiting their class by rereading our email exchange) but as the numbers show the total build up of stuff threatens to tip over the entire project.
5 comments:
okay so I don't feel so bad with my 800 emails in my work inbox and over 200 in my personal email. You're right though, about the chaos and the redundancy. Great post! The KB's and the Ram and all that whatevers behind all this is so incomprehensible to me.
I too have a big old pile of e-mail. My preference is to wait till the end of semesters to do a thorough housecleaning--haven't got a warning yet! Emptying my deleted items folder seems to do the trick . . . I guess, who really knows.
I had another warning this morning even though I did some hardy deleting. Problem is I didn't delete as much as I could since I always start reading old emails, wondering if I might miss something, as I delete. I'm a hopeless maximizer as MB has called me.
Dude! Who is e-mailing you so much?! I delete almost everything after I read it. There are times I get something and think to myself, "that is precious and I ought to save it." However, I realize that I don't re-read anything that didn't come from one of my children. So, My inbox is always cleaner than my friggin' SPAM folder.
Travis
I don't know how you can stand to have that much email just sitting around. I get tense if I let my inbox get more than 20 or so accumulated. I do have a few folders for things, but not too many.
I can't even stand for my spam folder to get too many in it - I clean it out once a week or so. Do I have some sort of disorder?
Like Travis said, I try to delete everything once I've read it, or at least once I've replied to it and/or completed the task.
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