email hoarding
Discussion
jimmyjimjim said:
nvubu said:
That's not hoarding. I have all mine for this century and some from the last one.
This. I might need to mount another drive, or pull a pst file from the NAS, but they're there if needed.I used to be very good at tidying out and filing emails, over the last year I had become a bit crap at it. I had 6,000 emails in my inbox and I have 19,000 in my sent items. I spent a few hours deleting crap and filing stuff last week to bring it down to 40 in my inbox.
I do have over 100k emails in my deleted items but I never clear it as I do sometimes have to refer back to them to the point I am actually using my deleted items as a searchable folders for the monthly accounts to find Paypal/Apple invoices etc. Works well for me, although I know the way I work would send many peoples OCD into overdrive.
I do have over 100k emails in my deleted items but I never clear it as I do sometimes have to refer back to them to the point I am actually using my deleted items as a searchable folders for the monthly accounts to find Paypal/Apple invoices etc. Works well for me, although I know the way I work would send many peoples OCD into overdrive.
28000+ going back to 2005.
I do delete useless ones almost straight away, and have filters/labels set up to put relevant emails into their own folders, but I only prune the rest when I know I won't need them again.
Mostly it's used as a repository for all those online invoices/warranty/insurance documents you get...as it would just mean replicating these into folders on the computer, which I'd them put on another cloud service (after all Gmail is just email in the cloud).
I also use it as a history of requested/agreed/refused changes to a a document when I'm working remotely for clients, so I can point out that the 'stupid circles around the bullet points' was in fact their idea and not mine...and I had previously pointed out it would look crap.
But then I also have multiple addresses which I use for less trustworthy websites and when I'm forced to sign-up to get a one-off discount code.
I do delete useless ones almost straight away, and have filters/labels set up to put relevant emails into their own folders, but I only prune the rest when I know I won't need them again.
Mostly it's used as a repository for all those online invoices/warranty/insurance documents you get...as it would just mean replicating these into folders on the computer, which I'd them put on another cloud service (after all Gmail is just email in the cloud).
I also use it as a history of requested/agreed/refused changes to a a document when I'm working remotely for clients, so I can point out that the 'stupid circles around the bullet points' was in fact their idea and not mine...and I had previously pointed out it would look crap.
But then I also have multiple addresses which I use for less trustworthy websites and when I'm forced to sign-up to get a one-off discount code.
Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 25th November 11:23
Periodically I sort all sent items by topic and then delete all but the last one (including attachments if required).
Then sort sent by size and prune down anything that can be deleted. It’s pretty easy to reduce the mail box size by 50%.
Then by “to” and see if there’s anything there that can be deleted.
For financial stuff, I tend to keep 10 years, and cut the 11th year when I think on, do the same for paper as well!
See my other minimalist tips in the other threads :-)
Then sort sent by size and prune down anything that can be deleted. It’s pretty easy to reduce the mail box size by 50%.
Then by “to” and see if there’s anything there that can be deleted.
For financial stuff, I tend to keep 10 years, and cut the 11th year when I think on, do the same for paper as well!
See my other minimalist tips in the other threads :-)
95k in my personal inbox..... and that is after a clearout a few years ago.
A great mail archiving app is this free app: https://www.mailstore.com/en/products/mailstore-ho...
A great mail archiving app is this free app: https://www.mailstore.com/en/products/mailstore-ho...
I have not deleted an email in the last twenty years plus - they take up such little space in the grand scheme of things I view it is better to have them than not have them.
I was able to search and pull an email up from 2019 which was advantageous to a commercial dispute I’m working on at present.
I was able to search and pull an email up from 2019 which was advantageous to a commercial dispute I’m working on at present.
ADJimbo said:
I have not deleted an email in the last twenty years plus - they take up such little space in the grand scheme of things I view it is better to have them than not have them.
I was able to search and pull an email up from 2019 which was advantageous to a commercial dispute I m working on at present.
Which is what I do... the mailstore app lets you archive and do the same offline....I was able to search and pull an email up from 2019 which was advantageous to a commercial dispute I m working on at present.
Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff