EXPERIMENT 1: Email

OBSERVATION

It’s not that I spend a lot of time on personal email. And of course I have to use email at work; it is now considered an official document after all. But what I noticed is that checking my email has become a daunting task. I get notifications, coupons, pleas for donations, requests for political/social action, and notifications from lots of businesses spouting sales, discounts, and free shipping (Oh My!).  It's so overwhelming!

While sitting in the doctor’s office Monday, I started to check email from my smart phone, which, by the way, makes email checking uber convenient. While it was checking for new mail from my (gasp) three separate accounts, I noticed that my gmail account had 5,617 emails! I have used 2,273MB of my 7,675MB (or 29%) account capacity since joining in 2007. What was SO important in these emails that I had to keep them? I'm guessing it was more about laziness than a deep desire to keep everything anyone has ever sent me!  (My other two accounts are not bad at all. One is for stores, coupons, etc. and I delete almost every email that comes to it. And the other is for my other blog. So for this experiment we will focus on my main gmail account.)

RESEARCH

According to the Radicati Group, Inc., 1.9 million people used email worldwide in 2010! A study by Harris Interactive in 2010, stated that workers can efficiently handle up to 50 emails a day before meeting their threshold. And a study conducted by Donna McCluskey in Evaluating Electronic Commerce Acceptance with the Technology Acceptance Model (Information Technology and Organizations: Trends, Issues, Challenges and Solutions, Volume 1, 2003), reported that the average person spends 4.2hrs on email a day. That is just personal use! 

HYPOTHESIS

These are going to be no-brainers since the purpose of this blog is to simplify my life!

If I organize my email account, then it will simplify my life. 

EXPERIMENT

Every night before bed (or while sitting in a waiting room or bathroom – you know we all play on our phones in there!), I will delete emails first by using the search function. Words such as “Facebook,” “Amazon” and “sale” should keep me busy for a while. After that no longer provides deletable emails (yeah, I know I just made up a word), I will start with the oldest emails and work my way to the most recent. I will create folders for important documents or items I want to keep such as: pictures, addresses, tax information, important documents, etc. And I will unsubscribe to marketing emails.

RESULTS

February 13, 2012 - After two weeks, I have deleted 3,113 emails and unsubscribed to 12 companies/organizations. Some how I have now used 2,282MB of my now 7,679MB of space? I don't know how it grew! I have created five folders and labeled several emails already (addresses, taxes, work, house, and one for my duaghter who passed).

DISCUSSION

Honestly? I don't feel that different. Most email providers have a search function, so I can easily look for addresses or tax information. Trying to unsubscribe from some of these companies is like trying to get a tour of the White House! Provide your social security number, drivers license, past and present addresses, occupation, reason for being in DC, reason for wanting to visit the White House, a letter from one of your state representatives...and we will then let you know if there is room!

I was redirected to several pages, asked why I was unsubscribing, asked if I was SURE I wanted to unsubscribe, asked specifically which topic I was unsubscribing from ("you don't want to receive emails about maternity clothes, but what about emails from our partners?"), etc. No. No. No! Oh, and there was the one company that I had to unsubscribe from three times and the other that never gave me the option!

So, do I think that clearing out and organizing my emails has simplified my life? It may mean a little less clutter and I may have decreased my megabyte-y impact, but I don't feel that my life is more simple. But I do think it was a good exercise in determining what is necessary and what I hold on to "just in case."