SKIRMISHER

Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal asserts, contra-Tyler Durden style, that You are your email inbox.

The thesis is summed up neatly in a shell: “Take a clear-eyed look at how you answer or file each e-mail. Notice what you choose to keep or delete. Consider your anxiety when your inbox is jammed with unanswered messages. The makeup and tidiness of your inbox is a reflection of your habits, your mental health and, yes, even the way Mom and Dad raised you.”

But the “shell,” Merlin Mann of 43 Folders says, feels like it’s full of holes. “What does your inbox say about you?” Mann asks, and follows it with: Maybe not much.

Mann says, “I think many of us couldn’t have ever predicted how email would demand so much attention in our lives. So most of us are still having a hell of a time figuring our how to give it exactly as much attention as it deserves. As that process evolves, we try on different habits and sometimes eat the booger. Fortunately, we can always change and adapt and even try to develop a style that does mirror our time and values in a way that suits our personalities. Or maybe not. Frankly, I don’t know.”

All this exchange somehow reminds me of my own thing with email. Which leads me to the albeit-tentative conclusion that through the shit of it all, it’s still you — the individual, self-absorbed, obsessive-compulsive-but-does-not-know-it-yet email user — who make the decision.

[Image by Kelly L.]

via 43 FOLDERS

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