Tell HN: 500 unread mails, 2K unread articles, 5K unread posts – I am drowning
But to add some more context: I am a freelance developer (web, mostly), one of my clients is a company that has hired me to do data analytics for them in a field that's quite new (and so there's a lot of studying (about statistics) and research (about the field) from my side) and I really, really, like exploring, studying and learning new things in many areas.
So, over the years, I've been collecting pieces of knowledge or other general information that I found interesting. And now, I find myself just before the start of a new year (= reflectioning and resolutioning) and just before a commitment that will require some very effective time management for the next few months, thinking that I just can't do it.
Now, to "do it" means to take action over all of these ~7.5K items. With very simple mathematics, if each item requires an action of ~5' each (this number is quite off but I am using it just to make more sense), I need something like ~26 days of doing nothing else other than "actioning" on these items (or ~52 days if I split the day in two halves, etc etc). Not very possible.
And here I am, asking for thoughts, opinions, advice. How do I do it? I could just "-f delete -all" in my inbox, pocket and bookmarks folder but I just "can't". Have any of you been in any similar positions? How did you deal with it? Is it some sort of standard "digital hoarding" situation? Is there something deeper? Should I seek for professional help, maybe?
98 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 160 ms ] threadMy inbox is simply a message log. If I read something, I read something. If I don't, I don't. The number of unread will forever grow.
Things that need non-immediate follow up get snoozed.
If your life has moved forward without reading them then probably you can do just fine without them.
Take 10-15 minutes to review your subscription, there's probably things from which you can unsubscribe. Maybe things you're not interested in anymore or things that looked interesting but not enough to follow through.
At the end of the day, meh.
Information overload is a thing, be aware of it.
I'd be more restrictive, i'd force myself to also shop in physical shops after 5 pm.
It's a bit of a hassle to setup because I control it by connecting to the WiFi which needs to be unplugged when I plug this smart plug :D but I couldn't find a bluetooth one on amazon (if someone has one please share)
It's called a timer switch in English.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_switch
I had nearly 5000 items.
That told me how many things I had to deal with per day, and more importantly, for each day, it told me my target for how many there should be remaining, and how many did actually remain.
I then wrote a script that listed the oldest 5, the most recent 5, and 5 chosen at random. Every day I ran that script and without fail dealt with those items. The mantra was:
* Delete;
* Defer;
* Delegate;
* Deal with.
"Defer" doesn't simply mean "put off" - it means that it is waiting for something before it can be done, so it goes in a special "pending" queue.
Then I also processed items that let me hit my numbers. Some were easy and I could far enough ahead of the game to let me take a day off, but mostly I just ran my "Choose 3x5" script again.
There were days when I slipped, and days when I got further ahead, but by November 1st I was down to under 200 items to deal with. And I've stayed at that, but now it's churn.
The secret, I found, was to have destinations for everything. Look at one of your bookmarks - why are you saving it? Where should it go? What should you do with it? Does it fit in an existing project? Do you need to create a new project? Should you simply file it for recall later when you need it?
* Does it require action?
* Should it simply be filed?
In my case, things built up because I didn't really know what to do with the thing I was looking at, so it went in the "Queued" pile and festered.
Deal with 10 things. Have destinations for them all.
Then you've made a start.
With regards to bookmarks.
* Websites you regularly read can stay as pinned tabs. If that costs too much RAM, bookmark them.
* Websites you read irregularly, can be put in bookmarks.
* Websites you'd only read once can be put in some kind of logging application such as an RSS reader, OneTab, etc.
I also believe something like Monica [1] can help with some issues. For example, say you're saving up items to buy as a present for your beloved one. With Monica, you could just link these in the CRM to the specific person, organized, and you also get to see what they got from you in other events. In that sense, I suppose "Deal with" is rather broad.
[1] https://github.com/monicahq/monica
I still want to read and learn and to be in the know. So I’m on the lookout for a better way to surface things I care about. Maybe 5-10 things a day. For now hacker news seems to be working the best, but it’d be nice to have something a bit more personal without an infinite feed.
https://www.howtogeek.com/304373/unrollme-is-selling-your-in...
* It is OK not to read everything. It is OK to let go of old emails and tasks and articles that you've bookmarked a long time ago. They will resurface at some point when you'll need them.
* You need to understand that your motivation to read something new like a new paper, or a new blogpost, fades away pretty quickly. Next time you're about to bookmark something interesting, stop and read the damn thing. Waste some of your precious time to read it.
* Take a break, take a holiday, book a hotel somewhere alone and go through all your emails and bookmarked items. Do some reading, do some cleaning. Do what you have to do to reduce this infinite stack of information.
> You need to understand that your motivation to read something new, like a new paper, or a new blogpost, fades away pretty quickly. Whatever way you use to obtain new things to bookmark, next time you're about to bookmark something interesting stop, and read the damn thing. Waste some of your precious time to read it.
Actually, I found out that if you procrastinate reading material, and you still want to read it in the near future (e.g. within a few months) it is probably worth reading it, and you should give it a whirl.
It is also OK to procrastinate with some material. For example, I still want to read Cryptonomicon, but I am intimidated by its size. However, good fiction ages well. I assume it is still a blast if I read it in 2025. So I don't feel a need for haste. I also consider fiction akin to gaming on a computer (pleasure is not useless, but can only be applied within leisure time), whereas non-fiction ages less good, and can be easier applied wrt your profession or life.
I find e-mail quite easy to deal with. I read it, process it (deal with it), and delete it (move it to trash). If I cannot deal with it right away, I don't delete it, but once in a while I go through my e-mails to get rid of such. If it is important (ie. important deadline), I star it. Approx once a year, I clean my mailbox, and make new folders for the new year.
As for news, a good newsreader with RSS which syncs between your devices yet respects your privacy is what I recommend. Don't follow too many websites, and make sure you differentiate between work(-related) and pleasure. Don't bother to follow all your websites. It is OK to miss news, comics, etc. Likewise, using Firefox on mobile and desktop allows to sync between the 2. I usually send my browser tabs from mobile to my laptop which is much more easy to interface with (IMO, YMMV, I'm from the previous century).
Also, I like to combine cleaning my stuff with other tasks. For example, you can do the dishes while listening to a podcast, or you can watch a documentary which does not interest you completely with something like reading the news. You cannot multitask, but you can change focus when it is interesting to you. This way, you can get more things done.
One thing I did learn, is that I should prioritize time with my daughter. I learned it the hard way (tho she's only 2 y.o.), and I guess if it doesn't occur to you, you can only learn it that way. Time with my daughter is the most valuable because she goes through her young life relatively quick, so if I want to experience these changes including the fun parts, then I have to spend time with her. Even if it is sometimes incredibly (mind-numbing) boring, there's no ups without such, and it isn't so much about me; it is about her, for her these experiences are interesting, and I need to remind myself about that.
[1] https://alexvermeer.com/getmotivated/
That email about a product launch you’ve forgotten? OBE
That article about how to write a node.js app in es5? OBE and probably a 404
That song you wanted to listen to but never got around to adding to a playlist because you found better ones? OBE
Bookmarking, saving, noting, or whatever mechanism you use to save information for later does not mean you will ever have the information. If it’s not important enough to be actionable starting a certain date, dump it, and if it becomes important, you will find it again.
This is why I mark everything as read once every couple of years and just give up. It's impossible to deal with everything.
The most obvious mailing lists removed a significant fraction of all of my emails. The long tail was trouble. When I'd done all I could stand, I went event-driven. Some infrequent spam would show up and I'd deal with it then. Now I'm dealing with a couple a week.
Most of my email is still 'spam' that I haven't brought myself to unsubscribe from yet. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I may be there.
But I'm already at the point where if someone is trying to get ahold of me by email it works again, and that wasn't true for quite a long time.
Social media and blog posts should be passive entertainment. You aren’t going to miss out on anything. You will accomplish more by letting it go.
You can do it! Just stop.
The insight that I had was that if it was import, interesting, or meaningful I would find it again.
I do this every year now. This boundary and requirement is now ingrained and I make sure that to really read, save, or process anything important because I will lose it.
My takeaway from the last three years is that there are only a handful of “important” or interesting things on my list.
It also reinforced focus.
P.S. I don’t delete important links like services or shortcuts; Simply reference material that’s not in an archive. I equate an archive to a recipe book.
You sir hit the nail on the head! I analyzed over all (almost all) my bookmarks, lists, notes, posts and emails from 2018 and 6 months of 2019 only to realize this - its entertainment.
I could find 7 distinct valuable things from hours of consuming text/videos for over 18 months. That was insane and in stark contrast to why I picked up reading blogs/tweets/HN in the first place - 1. to dig deeper in what I know and 2. seek new shiny things. I now use books for the former and HN/twitter/reddit/blogs for the latter.
Whats interesting, important and valuable finds its way to my feeds/searches/conversations and has the characteristic of showing up multiple times. The signal/noise ratio is Goddamn low.
I now have sticky notes on the wall right above my desk, one per area of interest. I look for books around what interests me, have real conversations with real people, explain or try to get folks around me hooked onto something that also interests me.
Overall I like it and my favorite part : are only so many stick notes that will fit on the wall. When there are too many, I will know, unlike my twitter/HN/reddit feeds.
[Edit - minor text updates]
I decided to change.
I deleted EVERYTHING.
It was hard but my life is better now.
Yet this ability to improvise and dive into the unknown got you to where you are today. It got you a leg up and advanced your career.
And regarding the interest, that's also a factor worth considering: Somehow the feeling of interest quickly gives way to a fearful feeling of imminent loss of contact with knowledge which may be necessary in the future. However IMO given your skill in the tech area in general, this question of necessity should probably be itself held in question.
One alternative path is to build the capacity to create your own knowledge as needed, through tactical, specific problem-event-based analysis. Doing so narrows the time scope and the applicable scope of available outside information. In effect it narrows your filters to both limit your exposure to impossible swaths of "maybe I'll need it" information and also increase your leverage over the specific problem in question.
If you want any more help with this feel free to drop me a line.