Personal – Admitting my Addiction

Well, here goes. I hate to do this publicly but I feel I have to.
For the past month I’ve been battling my addiction of email. Gmail more specifically.

Don’t laugh.

It’s an addiction just like any other. I run to my computer several times a day to see the new mail that came in.
Even when I’m working online, I have gmail open and I installed one of their add-ons that lets you see how many new emails you have when you have it opened in tabs (because normally you can’t).

Just writing about the things I’ve done gives me shivers.

I’m not over my addiction and I don’t know if I’ll ever be because email will always be a part of working online. It’s the equivalent of giving a heroin addict just a little bit each day. How long will they last before succumbing to the addiction? How long will I last?

I don’t know. What I do now is that I’m at the first step which is realizing I have a problem.
I hated to admit it to myself but I now understand that I do have a problem. The next step was an even worse wake up call – I started a plan to drastically cut the number of emails I was getting.

I opted out of numerous lists I was on and for those that I really don’t want to leave, I had gmail automatically archive them for me so I don’t even know they came in. They’re there for me to find if I want to, but they don’t arrive in my inbox.

That was one hell of a wake up call. Turns out I was on more than a hundred lists! I used to get more than 50 emails a day and I have now cut that to a few. Less than 5 new email a day to be exact. Talk about email diet.

But the email diet has it’s side effect. Because now comes my detox stage. It’s nothing short of a physical sensation of discomfort. Especially the first few weeks.
I keep going back to my inbox. After the email diet it’s Now thankfully empty.
I know it’s empty but I still take a look.

I think it’s going to be a struggle to close my inbox but that’s where I’m headed. I have to.
I know what I need to do online. I don’t have to wait for assignments from the emails in my inbox.

I know all that but still I find myself staring at the blank inbox. I hope I overcome this.

Am I the only one with email addiction? Please comment. I’m looking for your thoughts, encouragement and advice on this