I haven’t written anything in a long time… but I also don’t have anything to write about.
Therefore, I’ve prepared the following informative charts:
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Over the last forever, I’ve noticed that most people’s Gmail Inboxes look something like this:
Can I submit that it would work better if it looked like this?
Does your Inbox have a few thousand messages in it? Ever find yourself thinking you’ll respond to an email later, only to forget about it? Read on for a solution to clean things up:
Gmail has two filters on the left bar with an important difference that many people don’t know–”Inbox” and “All Mail”.
The Inbox button displays mail you’re currently working with (whether read or not), and the “All Mail” section displays every email you’ve ever received. Try clicking between them. If you don’t use the archive button, they both look equally cluttered right now, don’t they?
Try selecting an email in your Inbox and clicking “Archive”.
Now, you’ll notice it only appears in “All Mail”, not in “Inbox”. That’s what the “Archive” button is for. It takes emails that you’re not still working with (a finished project, a facebook notification, etc) and hides them from your Inbox page. The emails are not deleted and will still appear in search, in All mail, and in any folders that they belong to.
This is one of my favorite features of Gmail, and it’s one that most people aren’t using–when you’re done with an email and don’t need to worry about it anymore, archive it! It’ll always be there if you need it, but it won’t be in your Inbox distracting you from the things you’re still working on.
And that, my friends, is my nerd tip of the day. No need to thank me; just bask in the warm, comforting glow of your freshly organized Inbox. And please, share this tip on Twitter or Facebook if you find it useful–I’m on a mission to de-confuse the world’s email! Thanks!
I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote from Thomas S. Monson today:
Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It’s so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they’re gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of “what if” and “if only.”
How true that is. Have you ever noticed, when busy on a project, how easy to stop caring about what friends are saying? You nod your head and laugh at the required times, but you’re gone the whole time. I feel that way pretty often–I’m a task-oriented person. Throughout the day, my thoughts don’t stray far from my “to do” list and my carefully laid-out plans. Ask anyone that’s ever lived with me–I’m so organized, it’s a miracle I can eat Alpha-Bits cereal without having a panic attack.
In an attempt at correcting my course, let me point out the problem with my habit–life doesn’t follow plans. It wasn’t meant to; it’s full of people, and human beings are not programs or machines. Plans are a predictable map of a mechanical future; life is the story that happens instead.
In our unpredictable life, then, we often have to choose between turning the moment over to people or to tasks. When we reflect back over our memories some day, I doubt that our brightest moments will have been filled with busywork. For this reason, I believe that procrastination can be a virtue. At the proper time, it’s a display of enlightened priorities; don’t let the businessmen on Wall Street tell you otherwise. Life, in truth, holds nothing more important than time with loved ones. I think we all want to grow old with a head full of memories, even if that means a few less Washingtons in our wallet.
I think I was born half musical instrument–sound fascinates me. Some days I’ll lie on my bed, hitting different notes on my guitar and letting them ring out, just to listen to the sound slowly fade.
I feel more at peace socially when I have a guitar in my hands. I’m often nervous to meet a person or two, but I’m more than happy to sing and play for fifty. I can’t play much more than the basic chords, and I sing about as well as that cousin of yours that “is very brave to try so hard,” so it’s not competency that does it… I’m pretty sure it’s just a disposition from my bloodline. My grandma was a mandolin or something.
Question for you (yes you, reading the blog): Do you find you feel better about life when you’re making music? Or am I really descended from a string instrument? If you don’t feel overly awkward, leave a comment. I promise to give you an approving nod.
Chris, Chad and I playing Demons (by Guster) and Facebook Girl (an original) last Friday
While this blog won’t be as thought out as most of mine, it will be quite full of awesome. The school year so far:
Item the first – I bought a scooter! Neato. It’s a Rocketa (latin for “cheap chinese knockoff”), but it was cheap, it’s zippy (150cc), and it gets me where I need to go. Thus far, it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever purchased. Seriously. So stinking fun. Pictures are from the internet, not my camera–I didn’t feel like wearing pants at such an obscure hour of the day, so I’m unable to go shoot photos right now. But this is the kind of scooter I bought:
Item the second - I got a Touchstone charger for my phone. It’s a special kind of charger Palm makes that charges your phone using magnets. So you just walk up, set your phone down, and it charges wirelessly. Honestly, I’m sure it doesn’t save me more than 8.5 seconds per day. But it’s just the cool factor every time I set my phone down that gets me.
Item the third – I’ve got awesome teachers this semester, awesomely massive mounds of homework, an awesomely social ward, and I’ve still got two bucks in my pocket.
Life is awesome.