Learning to overcome mundane processing of emails

“We are by nature observers, and thereby learners.  That is our permanent state.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What the heck is wrong with you?” said the little voice nagging in my head this morning as I stood in front of my desk reading emails.

There’s nothing interesting here, it’s the same thing as yesterday.  A bunch of spam with a few news feeds I enjoy reading.  Shame, shame, shame, even a bunch of emails I read days before, still sitting there in the inbox.

“Get real!” 

The process of clicking to delete the spam has simply become boring!  So boring, I’ve ignored it for a few days, now it has become a big task! 

“What the heck is wrong with you, why don’t you just delete them right away?” 

The process of deleting emails isn’t a new task for me.  I do it ALL day long for work so I’m really good at it, but it isn’t fun, it’s annoying.  I don't learn anything new when I do it.

“So what’s the problem?”  

I haven’t learned how to get over the longing to discover what might be interesting in the email.  There might be something to learn or use in the future. 

"So your problem is that you love to learn?"  

Leaving an email in the inbox satisfies a desire.  I might just learn something when I read it.  The idea excites me and blocks me from deleting emails too quickly.  

“Well, that’s just plain silly!” 

I have to just buck up and admit it and then figure out how to live with the desire to learn in a different way.  I have to learn how to make it fun.  Email deleting is mundane, but the information contained in them might be worthy of reading. 

“How are you going to survive dealing with the mundane process of deleting emails?” 

I have to change up how I’m doing the mundane task.  Learn a new way of doing the same old familiar task.   

“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

“Duh…all you have to do is set rules in Outlook!”  

Yes, all I needed was a new outlook (no pun intended)!  Jeez...why didn’t I think of rules in Outlook before?  Just like magic, I created folders for the emails I want to review regularly and sent the junk to spam or trash folder.  

My inbox only contains undefined spam and new things I’ve never seen before.  Now I can focus my learning on smaller chunks of information within the folders and quickly see new content to or send to spam in the future.  

“See, that was easy!”

Thank you little nagging voice.  Now I have time to learn something new and enjoy the fall day! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy finding ways to make the mundane a new learning experience!