This message is about when something in your life starts out small and then grows and grows and before long it is totally out of hand.
It is true that I started on our high school basketball team at a height of 6‘3” and 170 pounds. It is not true…yet…that I have exceeded 600 pounds. The title of this message was a metaphor. It was a metaphor for when something starts out small and grows and grows and grows and before long it is totally out of hand. What am I talking about? From day one I have had the very same email address with Yahoo. When was day one? I’m not really sure but it was well over a decade ago. I used to try to limit the number of messages in my inbox to 100. For the longest time, I was pretty successful with that. Then the number of messages in my email box both read, unread and unacted upon soared to 300. Oh my. Then the items in my mailbox sort of went to seed if you know what I mean. On January 26, 2022, I took a moment to assess the situation. My inbox now had 14,519 emails of which 4,664 of them were unread! Oh my. You might be saying to yourself, “Randy, that’s terrible. Are you just a generally unorganized person? Do you have a hard time managing, “order”? What does your desk look like?” Well…since you asked this is what my home office desk looks like. Does this look unorganized to you? Maybe, huh? However, rest assured I know where every piece of paper is on my desk…even if it’s been there for years. My email situation was like anything that gets out of hand. Something had to be done. I considered just deleting every message in my mailbox in one fell swoop. A buddy of mine once told me that when someone commits suicide it is a “long-term solution to a short term problem”. I am not trying to be funny here. Nevertheless, I thought his message was right on…about many life problems. Deleting all of my email messages seemed like it would be a “long-term solution to a short-term problem”. Years ago, I took a course titled “The ABCs of Time Management”. What do I remember from that? Three things. Yes, one of three things should happen to every paper, and now every email, in my possession. What were those three items? Read the message and act Read the message and file Read the message and toss That was the solution! I would read each of these 14,519 emails and do one of the three things noted above. How would I go about that? This was my solution. I would focus on emails that were in my inbox from the last 10 years. You hafta start somewhere, right? I numbered each month of emails from January 2012through December 2021 in reverse chronological order with December 2021 being first. Which emails would I attack first? I had a solution. I simply went to my iPhone and said “Siri, give me a random number between 1 and 120”. Whichever number Siri recommended would be associated with a full month of emails in my yahoo inbox. I established a goal trying to knock out one month of old emails each day that I was home. That would take me 120 days. I’m not normally home for much more than 120 days (usually about 180) in a year so this project will probably take me nearly 12 months. What is the point of this message? Little things can get out of hand if they are not dealt with on an ongoing basis. Sometimes, “natural progression” solves problems. I have a good buddy back in the Midwest who was telling me what it cost to plow the snow from his drive during the winter. Apparently, it’s been a pretty snowy winter so far. If I lived in the Midwest I would probably just keep thinking about the Fourth of July when it snowed. By the Fourth of July, there wouldn’t be a single snowflake to be found…and I would have a wad of unspent snow plowing cash in my back pocket! Then that’s just me. I’m the solar panel guy, not the snowplow guy. Well, I gotta go. We’re leaving in a couple of days for a cruise with our family to celebrate Carol’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. The number of years that we have been married has built up to a fairly respectable number but in a much more positive way compared to how the number of email messages in my inbox has built up! Below are a few of the subjects that I was reminded of as I went about beginning my own personal “Email Reduction Act”. October 2018 I was recommending the best ever discount airlines travel bag from Costco Getting my race ticket to Saudi Arabia which was required for me to get a visa to Saudi Arabia Lots of feedback from locals on our trackchasing adventure to Newfoundland and Labrador Submitting a bid for an upgrade on Norwegian Airlines to Portugal Happy anniversary message from the Waffle House Regular’s Club Multiple responses from my message, “How I’m going to get rich or fat or both from spending money”
Closing documents for selling our final Hawaii timeshare December 2017 Notified our twin grandkids have email at age 9 From a fellow who is not unhappy with his tax situation…”I must live in a crappy house and state, my tax load ain’t that much!” This person was replying to my solar payout message, “Randy: I always read your posts with some amusement–what frequently applies to and is considered “normal” for California is a complete anomaly for the rest of the nation, especially the still affordable and reasonably sane Midwest.” Constant communications from racing people in Australia for my after Christmas trackchasing trip to down under, “Hi Randy… We’d love to have you visit Hi-Tec Oils Speedway on December 31. Please let us know your mobile number for when you’re in Australia and we will stay in touch about some media opportunities if it can work for you. Will you be in Toowoomba any time in the lead up to the event or just on the day?” Confirmation that my travel visa to Australia was approved…”Thank you for your application for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) for Australia.We can confirm that your application has been successful and that you now have a valid ETA. Your credit card payment for AUD$20.00 has been received. It will appear on your credit card statement against the business name iVISA SERVICES, NORTH SYDNEY.” March 2013 Kim Komando – Do not call cell phone lists Bid/plans for installing solar panels – we did that in April 2013 Retirement health care questions! Gary Player bunker tip Feedback from my frequent messages for purchasing a car over the internet…“Just wanted to say thanks for your advice for buying a car over the internet. I used your advice and sent quotes out to 11 Honda dealers (8 in the Cincinnati and Dayton area and 3 in Florida). We have a condo in Florida and were leaving my old car there. Within a few hours of sending out my request for quote (RFQ) I had most of the quotes back. It took a couple emails to some to make sure the quotes included everything. Some people did not read the RFQ so it took some follow up to get the true cost number. I picked up my Honda CR-V Wed. The price I got was about $1400 under the “dealer invoice” number. Needless to say I was surprised at how great a price I got. I’ll sure plan on doing this next time I purchase a car as well. One question for you. Two quotes I sent to the salesmen that I talked to when test driving the vehicle I wanted. I thought I would let them get a shot at my business since they spent the time to talk to me and let me test drive a vehicle. All the other quotes went to the dealer internet teams. Those two quotes were some of the highest quotes I received. My guess is the internet team can quote better prices because they spend little time closing a deal hence have much lower overhead. I didn’t know if you had any thoughts or input on this from your past experiences. March 2012 The messages from nearly 10 years ago were a bit depressing. Several friends or friends of friends have passed away during the past 10 years. Nevertheless, I found it worthwhile to remember them even if it was the unexpected positive outcome of something sort of weird like my “Email Reduction Act”.
