There's a Trophy in my Inbox!

The last few years I have found myself juggling more and more responsibilities and roles as I balance life as a teacher, leader, wife, and mom. It can be overwhelming at times, and I find that the crazier my life gets, the crazier my lack of organization becomes. As I begin another school year, I am determined to tackle this beast head on! I must create systems to tame the crazy & bring some sanity to my life.

My first beast to tackle....EMAILS!  Saying that my email inboxes were out of control is an understatement.  I am going to risk complete embarrassment and tell you that one of my inboxes had reached 1296.  Yes...you read that correctly. I can't tell you how long I had dreamt of whittling that number down. In fact, for the last 2 years I intended on it being a summer project, but in all honesty it was too daunting {and boring} a task to complete and it just didn't happen.

Until.....this week.

I'd been building motivation to tackle my inboxes for quite some time when my good friend, Tara Martin, shared with me how she had been reading some articles on strategies inspirational CEO's used to stayed organized. She explained her mission to bring her inbox to zero and how she accomplished it.  When she told me how gratifying and freeing it was to be at inbox zero, I knew I wanted to experience that same freedom.  This was the push I needed to make it happen.  I needed to bring my inbox to ZERO, and I needed to do it NOW!

I followed Tara's suggestion and created no more than 10 folders to organize the emails I wanted to keep.  I made a folder for each of my professional roles and categories that I referenced regularly and one for those that I needed to follow-up.

I started tackling the emails in chunks.  I first searched for emails that were reoccurring that I knew were no longer needed and deleted them all at once. Then I went to my oldest files and soon realized that I could eliminate large groupings quickly because they were from so long ago the likelihood I would still need them was slim. Once I got into rhythm, it went much faster than I originally imagined.  Honestly, it became a bit of a challenge.  I felt victorious after each 100 I eliminated and encouraged to keep going.

Then....the miraculous happened. My inbox was completely empty and guess what was there waiting for me!?  A TROPHY! 

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Who knew a trophy would be waiting for me at the end?! It was like my inbox knew what an incredible challenge this would be and was congratulating me for accomplishing it! Tara was right, it felt so gratifying and freeing to know that I was all caught up. It felt like a weight had been lifted and I could now be intentional about making sure I never allowed this inbox craziness to enter my life again. I took on my other two email accounts the next day and I am proud to say I am at inbox ZERO in all of them!  The daunting task that I had been putting off for literally years, I was able to accomplis within 24 hours once I set my mind to it.  Thank you, Tara, for inspiring me to action!

It is my goal this year to bring my inbox to zero before I leave school each day. I plan to schedule time daily to answer email rather than responding to it at random. It is important for me to be in the moment with my students and the people I serve. If I take time to focus on emails and handle them individually, I will be more likely to delete and file as I go rather than allowing them to accumulate in my inbox. By starting the year at zero, I feel empowered and confident I can make this happen!

As we all start a new school year, I challenge you to tackle those beasts in your life that are threatening your organizational sanity! It's truly amazing how freeing it is and how little time it often takes when we set our minds to completing the mission! Are you up for the challenge? There may even be a trophy waiting for you at the end!

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