22 JAN 2015 :: Email sorting

I spent quite a lot of time trying to get to my email folders, to sort through them and eliminate the ones that don't need to be kept... round one.  It is going to take days and weeks to sort through my huge collection of past emails, but it has to be done... I want to find things that are important to remember and file them better.

I guess I call it the "historical perspective."  Remembering things that happened because they are part of what happens today.

I have gone through a variety of sorting and filing efforts already.  Trying a separate folder for every topic, moving to large topic folders, and now I am getting into main topics/segments with their own subtopics. It's a number and letter challenge.  I am searching for the best way to order my folders the way I want them to be ordered.

I have created a number system for the folders I want at top, but it can't go over 9 because the auto-file aspect of computers makes it go out of the desired order.  That is one limit. After the main number category, there are two options :: a letter right next to the number (which files alphabetically) OR a space and then a hyphen and then a space and then a topic. This latter choice is much more flexible... I am fine-tuning it these days.

I have no idea what other people do with their emails, but it would be nice to find out... especially big companies with lots of files to deal with.  :-)

I can't devote that much time to sorting through my emails every day, so I may get my kitchen timer out and use it to limit myself to one hour a day... in time, my goal will be achieved... (a LONG time!)  That's better than having it on my list for the rest of my life.

I have wanted to print the most important files and store them somehow. It is easier to find the important pages that way.  I can't afford the paper or ink, and haven't got the storage space yet, but it is still the way I would rather handle the sorting process.  I could mark the paper file with a reference point and archive the original. 

That doesn't say much about achieving a "paperless" environment, but I haven't wanted that future anyway!  :-)  I am a visual person... I like to see, touch, read, mark up, and organize my information. It is too hard to do all that in an email file.

That was the day I had... mostly.

I did finally get to my http://networkedblogs.com account and wandered through some lists of blogs to follow. I went to several topics and chose a number of the ones that I wanted to explore further. I will do that for my next step.   The only problem I had was when I searched for my exact blog title... it came up "crafts" of some kind, and I finally found myself at number 157...  not what I expected, but I still have to figure the site out and see if there was a different place to search for an exact blog title.  I am looking forward to registering my other blogs and finding them.  :-)   I need to find the links to share, too.

All this learning sure is time consuming... I am deciding what to focus on more... and what to let go. I haven't been able to get to my crafts. I need to get a separate space for them... which I haven't been able to do yet.  Here is where my faith comes in...  I am trusting GOD to help me overcome the issues I am currently dealing with, and doing the best I can to meet the needs of each day. 

May GOD be kind to me and provide what I have needed for so long. AMEN!