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t seven days. Man, that is a truckload of anxiety!<h1 id="89e8">Sense of achievement after decluttering</h1>I decided to purge my inbox. Not entirely, but just enough to calm my mind.There were 31 emails. I handled them one by one. If you have done a cleaning task like this, you will never stop until the number comes down to zero.Every email feels like a task checked from a to-do list. That is how the brain’s reward system works. You do more of what gives you a sense of pleasure.<h1 id="cfcb">Only do what is enough</h1>I could’ve cleaned my entire inbox but decided to make it a little less intense because I have a life outside of emails.I went down from 31 to 10. That is a whole other achievement compared to when I was staring at a screen with 31 red flags waiting for me to heed them. Yes, the number game!Then I came back to Medium and came up with this short article. It is a quick explanation of what I did to clear my head and get back with my muse.<h1 id="feea">Final words</h1>Sometimes you are not in the right mood to start your work. The thing about mood is that it is temporary. You can change it according to your liking.To get going, divert your attention to an activity which provides a strong sense of rel

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ief after completion.And I know, if you are even a little bit lethargic ( dare I say a mother of laziness ), your inbox will flood because the hustle culture is precisely that: stay worked-up all day with back and forth communication with no time for the personal space. Google it. You will get the same gist as the italicised statement earlier.Cleaning the inbox is one of the ways to feel a sense of achievement. Not just that, it will help reduce anxiety too.Lastly, you’ll realise it is not as long as you thought it would be. So, it is close semblance to instant gratification, which is healthy for your brain and will also put you in a better mood, not the kind of instant gratification that makes you miserable ( social media scrolling ) after it disappears.This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Today is day 91. Navigate to the end of <a href="https://readmedium.com/your-phone-is-a-distraction-only-if-you-want-it-to-be-3ea75dfb081b">article 22</a>, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the <a href="https://readmedium.com/21-90-rule-combined-with-seinfeld-strategy-df9f7457dc11">first one</a> that documents them in the end.~ Sanjeev</article></body>

Want Some Healthy Instant Gratification? Clean Your Inbox

Flooded inbox means mental clutter

I had so many ideas to write about that I couldn’t converge to a single one.

You can say I was about to hit the writer’s block when I realised I needed to shift my attention from writing to chill out while feeling rewarded in the process.

Flooded inbox means mental clutter

If you pay attention, your email client is probably open all the time your computer is running. When I looked at my email client Spark, there were 31 messages to be addressed.

Anxiety increases in such situations when you know you have to do a lot of essential work. Still, you keep postponing it for no valid reason. You just think, “I’ll do it later”, then manage in the end when the essential tasks become urgent. Now you have no option but to compromise on quality.

In my case, these 31 emails are from the last seven days. Man, that is a truckload of anxiety!

Sense of achievement after decluttering

I decided to purge my inbox. Not entirely, but just enough to calm my mind.

There were 31 emails. I handled them one by one. If you have done a cleaning task like this, you will never stop until the number comes down to zero.

Every email feels like a task checked from a to-do list. That is how the brain’s reward system works. You do more of what gives you a sense of pleasure.

Only do what is enough

I could’ve cleaned my entire inbox but decided to make it a little less intense because I have a life outside of emails.

I went down from 31 to 10. That is a whole other achievement compared to when I was staring at a screen with 31 red flags waiting for me to heed them. Yes, the number game!

Then I came back to Medium and came up with this short article. It is a quick explanation of what I did to clear my head and get back with my muse.

Final words

Sometimes you are not in the right mood to start your work. The thing about mood is that it is temporary. You can change it according to your liking.

To get going, divert your attention to an activity which provides a strong sense of relief after completion.

And I know, if you are even a little bit lethargic ( dare I say a mother of laziness ), your inbox will flood because the hustle culture is precisely that: stay worked-up all day with back and forth communication with no time for the personal space. Google it. You will get the same gist as the italicised statement earlier.

Cleaning the inbox is one of the ways to feel a sense of achievement. Not just that, it will help reduce anxiety too.

Lastly, you’ll realise it is not as long as you thought it would be. So, it is close semblance to instant gratification, which is healthy for your brain and will also put you in a better mood, not the kind of instant gratification that makes you miserable ( social media scrolling ) after it disappears.

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Today is day 91. Navigate to the end of article 22, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read the ones before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.

~ Sanjeev