THE WEEKLY PAGE 📝 No. 193
Email overwhelm tip + this week's picks for work, wellness, and wonder.
One of my friends is notorious for letting her email inbox get out of control. She loves to send me screenshots showing 36,000…48,000….or per her most recent taunting message…57,000 unread email messages.
She knows it will make me break out in a sweat because the organized state of my inbox is one of my pride and joys.
Many people struggle with email overwhelm — and while there are various “tips” “hacks” and “methods” for calming the clutter….the holistic approach is to reduce the volume of emails you receive.
Reducing email volume comes down to mostly two things 1. Creating reasonable boundaries for people and 2. Providing resources that provide people’s most sought after answers, information, or requests.
One of my favorite methods is called the “Smart Contact Page (or Smart Email Signature)”, and I credit the idea to University of Washington Professor Emily M. Bender, who provides a prime example on her contact page via the University’s website.
Wanna reach out to Professor Bender? Not so fast, bucko. She’s got some rules for getting into her inbox, and I think more of us should follow her lead.
In a nutshell, Professor Bender’s contact page addresses some of the most common reasons someone might want to send her an email. From students with course-related questions, to journalists inquiring about her research. And she has a next step for each of them (that don’t involve emailing her).
At the bottom, she provides her email address, but also states, “Please include the word "penguins" in the subject line of your email so that I know that you've read this page.” Gulp — she’s not messin’ around. And now she can delete all emails that don’t include “Penguin” with a clear conscience.
Alright so perhaps you aren’t a professor — but I’m willing to bet that that you can make a list of 5-10 things that people are constantly reaching out to you about — those emails that you find yourself typing out over and over again. *That* is perfect content for a Smart Contact Page.
It can be linked on your company/organization website, or shared somewhere internal like Slack, or linked in your email signature so folks see it when they correspond with you.
If email is something you struggle with, I have nine more tips in this blog post for Reducing Email Overwhelm ASAP. I’m willing to bet there are a couple ideas that could work miracles in your inbox.
🎓LEARN: I love waking up to a clean house, and The Everygirl has dubbed this a “Closing Shift” — aka, having a quick tidying routine you do in the evening to help stay ahead of household messes. It’s so simple, and I kinda love it. Check it out here.
💦 HYDRATE: Perhaps you have plans to “drink more water” in the new year. If so, lemme introduce you to my all-time favorite water cup: The Bubba Tumbler. Personally I think it is far superior to the much trendier Stanley cup. First of all, it’s $9, not $50 — and it holds a reasonable amount of water (24 oz) without being comically gigantic. I’ve used mine for yearsssss. Get yourself one.
📺 WATCH: I wasn’t sure what to expect with this movie…but I laughed SO hard. After their mom is put into assisted living, they discover she owes $80K to a local loan shark. The sisters devise a plan to win the money they need on a popular game show (basically Jeopardy). Chaos, of course, ensues. Watch the trailer here.
🦃 ENJOY: For the fourth year in a row I will once again be recommending that you make this Holiday Grilled Cheese Sandwich from Iowa Girl Eats with your Thanksgiving leftovers. Just use your leftover turkey instead of the deli slices and enjoy. Grab the recipe here.
5 Truths About Moving Abroad 🌍
💲 Paywall Transparency: the intro to this post shares a lot of info about our decision to move abroad, how we did it, and the emotions surrounding it. A paywall begins before my 5 Truths About Moving Abroad, and you will need to be a paying subscriber to read through those.
How to Make Salads that *DON'T* Suck 🥗
💲 Paywall Transparency: the intro to this post has info about making better salads and includes my first 5 tips — you’ll need to be a paying subscriber to read all fifteen tips or grab the free PDF cheat sheet. Salads are kind of like going to the gym. It doesn’t sound great at first. It’s hard to get excited about it. But once you get started it’s actually sorta wonderful, ya know?
💬 Comment & chat below! Anything in this week’s newsletter spark your curiosity? What did you try/read/listen to?! Have questions? Got a recommendation of your own? Pop ‘em below.
I love the closing shift idea! I have been limiting it to 10 mins on a typical night - usually it entails making sure everything dirty is in dishwasher, clothes picked out for next day, and then making sure I have my breakfast & lunch situated for the next day. If I don't have my breakfast or lunch sorted then that can take more than 10 mins to get it ready, but worth it to ensure I eat healthy & nourishing foods. I make sure to start my closing shift with enough time to wash my face & still read alittle before bed too.
I also have recently found this tumbler brand called Simple Modern & I love their screw top technology that makes it easy to adjust which side of cup straw is on. & it's much cheaper than Stanley ones too (I agree that they are way overpriced).
Ugh; I love/hate the closing shift idea. I waffle on this (specifically -- doing the dishes from dinner) but the nights I do it, I feel so good about it, but sometimes it feels like I have to choose between tidying and having time to relax before bed. I typically tidy my desk each night, although since my husband has started using my office sometime, I have been alerted that our ideas of a “tidy” desk are not aligned 🤣