why i have so much free time online part one

So, I have been experiencing a slight problem lately. I have been running out of things to check on my email very quickly, and during those down times when I can goof off, I have nothing to look at. How is this possible? How is it that I do not have a lot of emails to sort through every day? How is it that I spend an average of four minutes online a day? Well, I will tell you.

You may think that to be able to get down to not spending a lot of time on email I must not be on a lot of email lists, or have many people send me messages, or am not a member of any site that sends emails. All of this is untrue, and I will tell you how I manage them in a bit.

First off, I have Gmail, a wonderful program that allows you to do so much with it. Possibly the best part is that for every message it not only tells you the subject line, but also the first part of the message as well. So many people send out one line messages that you need to read, but do not need to respond to, that you can read them and delete them without ever having to go into the message. Takes less than half the time.

Gmail also has this cute little thing called filters, which are a life saver. One of my favorite things that it does is deleting unwanted messages. I am on a couple of lists that send out a couple of different types of messages, some good, some bad, but always with a similar subject line. I can go in and tell it to automatically delete the ones with the subject line I do not like, and I never have to see them again.

I am on ten or more email lists that regularly send out emails, including one that send out maybe two or three messages a day. This is where the four minutes a day breaks down. Back to those wonderful filters I have a lot set up. I have a folder for different topics and my emails automatically go to them, keeping my inbox free for important things. (Actually, they are called labels.) I have one day set aside to look at my emails, so I spend roughly an hour looking at them on Tuesdays. I have some of the pay per click emails, get a weeks worth, around 60, out of the way in less than five minutes. I have some emails that teach me things, which I tackle when I have time for them. And I have a label called “Weekly Check,” which is where all of those good newsletters that always seem to appear at the worst time go to wait for me looking at them on Tuesday.

Come back next week for part two