Cleaning out the inbox is part of why I hate gmail for work -- it's annoying to delete individual messages out of a "conversation," even when half of them are off-topic/unnecessary. And then when I file something, it pops back into the inbox if someone replies to it, ever. Bleh.

True, although the flip side can be just as bad. My psycho co-editor refuses to include previous email(s) in her replies (including what she is directly responding to) so then I have to keep multiple emails (not mention sometimes have no idea what she is talking about.

Megan's email system is mine (which I'm guessing means we're both fans of Merlin Mann), except I don't bother with the sent box. My company has a really good automatic email archiving system that means I don't ever run out of space, so my inbox-zeroing is purely for my own mental health.

Oh, and for the record, the UPS place was inside the business center of the hotel. Good to know!

My psycho co-editor refuses to include previous email(s) in her replies (including what she is directly responding to) so then I have to keep multiple emails (not mention sometimes have no idea what she is talking about.

Oh, that's annoying!

I have to write a self assessment. You would think it would get easier after having written so many, but the DO NOT WANT remains strong.

I can't have more than something like 150000 messages in a given folder. It's a filesystem limit, not a space issue.

It's not documented anywhere, so I'll let you guess how I learned that.

I don't use enough space to have to archive things, but my folder system is pretty extensive.

All my advice is from Get-It-Done-Guy. Favorite advice (that I don't totally follow) is for your Out-of-Office message to read that you will not be able to reply to anything sent in your absence and for the sender to resend anything requiring a response. Then delete the entire contents of your inbox upon your return.

Favorite advice (that I don't totally follow) is for your Out-of-Office message to read that you will not be able to reply to anything sent in your absence and for the sender to resend anything requiring a response. Then delete the entire contents of your inbox upon your return.

Man, I wish I could do that. But it's too dependent on other people reading the out-of-office.

That's pretty nifty, but I don't think I could do it. Just, my brain wouldn't let me.

Other than autofiltering out stuff when I hit the limits, I've decided as long as I've got the space, I'm not going to try to do any more than delete contentless stuff. Because my ridiculous inbox has saved my ass numerous times.

OK, dentist time.

I don't do the radical deleting, but then I feel I can skim through everything and delete most of it without feeling like I necessarily need to repond.

The first time I did it, I was going through my inbox and was wondering why I had two messages about the same thing from people. And then I realized it was because they had actually followed the instructions!

I can count on one hand the number of times I've even thought "I wish I had that", but except for my abusive, lying author (before I realized what I needed to save or not) it's certainly never been something critical.

I'm a purger by nature. The thought of just having useless stuff lying there unorganized gives me hives.