Inbox Update
Pull beats push any time. Attraction beats coercion. I’m experiencing that at continuously deeper levels as my Lean2Life Reorganizational Journey continues.
One of the best Lean moves I have made was setting Outlook to send emails to spam until I whitelist them. I check spam regularly, and set up rules for my subscriptions and newsletters to go to my “subscriptions” folder. I clear the rest of my non-spam to go to my Inbox.
How’s that working for me? GREAT!!! Better than I imagined! Why did I wait so long to do this?! It is so much easier to move a few non-spams from my junk folder than to delete all the spam I was getting from my inbox.
The Lean reason this works so well is that my inbox now only has what I have pulled into it. The emails that have been pushed on to me are in a separate folder for my review when I choose to look.
I started this process with an empty inbox and only invite what I want in there. I am the master of my inbox now, not the other way around.
Starting with Empty
My friend Wendy emptied out her bedroom for painting. She had a great time resetting her room from scratch – starting with an empty room.
The Liberty of Having the House to Myself
So this weekend, I had the liberty of having the house to myself. That meant I could be as loud, messy, goofy – you name it – as I wanted. I stayed home and dedicated the weekend to sorting myself and a main closet.
I started the closet sorting item by item. I got a little traction, but quickly realized I needed to take everything out. When I made the decision to sort that way, I felt my energy and enthusiasm increase, despite the fact that it was a very big job.
Within an hour, half the house looked like a bomb had exploded – but the target closet was bare.
I did make one trip to the store to buy modular storage drawers. Enroute, I wondered if what I really needed was another closet rod for a new level of hanging items. Bob had often suggested that I could have one installed if I wanted, but I was concerned about investing in something I might not like.
An Experiment
As I drove to the store, I noticed the clothes bar in the back of the car and wondered if I could experiment with that. I hung it from the upper rod with twine. I hung a few things on it. Then I hung a few more. I liked it. A lot. As I got deeper into the process, I expanded the clothes bar. Later, I expanded it a little more. I found what seems to be the perfect width.
The modular storage containers went back to the store, but the trip wasn’t a waste. I found what I needed in my own backseat.
Would I have added the bar if I hadn’t made the trip? I don’t know.
I do know that the power of pull beats the pressure of push any day.
Bob and I both know that the more free we feel from external push, the more pull we find – and the less patience we have with push in our lives. It’s a liberating thing – and it works.
PS – You know the divider line I have at the bottom of my posts? That’s in my images. I have to open three folders to get to it. Just now, I put a copy of it in the folder my web content manager opens to. A quick improvement to save myself a few steps. That’s Lean!
