Driven to Email Distraction (Writing)

Part of being a writer entails email. There are conversations with editors about story ideas, pitching to magazines about upcoming topics, and applying for positions at various publications. It becomes a part of the job that you accept, and like most, eventually get pretty good at it.

But then there's the part no one tells you about. The part where a work email intermingles and swishes around with every other email that you receive. In one day, you can receive a multitude of tasks and requests that may or may not need your attention right away. The forwarded joke from your in-laws. The person that your friend told to email you about a mutual friend. The writing newsletter that has an upcoming contest that you may or may not enter, but haven't decided on yet. The Land's End email confirming your order but that you left out your inseam length and they cannot fulfill your order until you do so.

And so it goes.

Fast forward to three months later or six years later and you will have what everyone else has - a billowing Outlook that cries out to be tended to, but the task is too overwhelming. You'll take care of it tomorrow. Or when you have more time.

Eep.

This is the bane of the writer's existence. There are good days, where you get a lot done. Then there are those when you have 67 messages in your Inbox and can't see your way out.

I have found through my writing career that it is best to look at it this way - one thing (email) at a time, one day at a time. It is the only way to get through it all, without losing your mind and your patience.

I have tried various methods and organizational tools and really, it just comes down to do a little bit each day and accepting that there will always be more mail than you can handle. I'm sure that there are organizational gurus out there that will tell you that they have the method that will take care of everything, but you would have to spend a lot of time and money to make that happen. And the end result will be the same. So save yourself a lot of cash and energy:

- One thing (email) at a time.
- One day at a time.