I’m back…after spending the past several months in a kind of twilight zone. A no-internet-connection zone. I might as well have been in Siberia!
It’s hard to believe how accustomed I had become my cyber connection to the world out there—even though there were times my mail went astray. I could still email, surf the web to research, shop and chill out. Then it all crashed out. For a while I felt totally lost, cut off from society. But I soon discovered how much time I gained each day—minutes I was exceedingly grateful for as I faced deadlines rushing down on me at express-train speed.
Between the writing, I sat on the phone. I learned to talk to friends again—as opposed to emailing them. I even called my ISP. Those calls were long and fruitless. There was no easy answer to why I was plagued by connection problems. No one could tell me “The answer is 42″. In frustration I changed internet providers (which meant changing my email address AND my mobile number…horrors!) and worse, my connection still didn’t work. I tried checking my email at an internet café. The systems were so S_L_O_W I almost murdered the monitor.
Trying to delete twenty messages at a time on the webmail system took FOREVER. Not an option—especially when my deadlines loomed closer.
I went back to calling my ISP. A technician came and went. Another arrived…and left. Several storms in my area meant that the telecommunications company had more pressing problems than my connection to worry about. By the time they FINALLY got me back online four months had passed, my garden had been partly dug up and all the cabling replaced…it was the day before I was due to fly out on a trip that would end at San Francisco for the 2008 RWA conference.
I returned from conference this week and started to download my missing email messages. Thousands of them…over ten thousand. I almost fainted. My friend, critique partner and now fellow Desire author (WOOOHOOOOO!) Sandra Hyatt, suggested a solution she’d recently heard about. “Declare an internet bankruptcy.” “A what?” I asked.”Delete everything and start over,” she explained.
Wow. At first the notion of hitting the delete key was totally scary. I’m a hoarder by nature. I save snippets of interesting information on the off chance that I might one day need them. Yeah right! I keep favourite books for decades. Now I consider all those unread messages. Can I bring myself to delete them? Without a doubt a large percentage will be spam. Many messages will now be out-dated. Then there are the group messages most of which aren’t even directed specifically to me. Yet in between all those emails there will be some that are infinitely precious…and if I hit delete they will vanish forever. I think about the hours…weeks…months…it will take to trawl those messages to find the gold and balance it against my New Year’s resolution to simplify my life. I’m still undecided.
So I’m throwing the question out to any takers. If you were me what would you do?
Tessa xx
PS – Patty L wins a $50 book voucher randomly drawn from commentators to my past posts. Patty contact me at tessa @tessaradley .com to claim your prize.
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Wow, Tessa, four months without internet… that’s terrible 
What I do when my inbox gets full is to have it organized by subject… that has all my e-mails from the yahoo groups appear first (since they are in brackets), and all personal e-mails appear last. I can easily erase all e-mails from groups this way and look at the personal e-mails without accidently deleting.
Not sure if this works for you, but hope it helps.
~Ali
by Ali
on August 7th, 2008 at 9:36 am
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I can’t believe that you picked my name. YIPPPPEEEE!!!! I will email you as soon as I can. I’m at work, so sometimes my email doesn’t go through.
As far as 10,000 emails I would delete all and start over. I know you may miss some precious notes, but I would send out a distress signal to anyone that sent you one and ask that anything important be resent.
by Patty L.
on August 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
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I am shocked!!! Four months!!!
I have no good advice to pass on… I, myself am always afraid I might delete something I need… and have done so accidentally in the past.
by Colleen
on August 7th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
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wtg patty
by kim h
on August 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
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I would delete all and start over.
by Estella
on August 7th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
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I would start over…
PS: I once won your trilogy on another blog and never received the books… I know the reason why now!
by Nathalie
on August 7th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
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OMG! Four months… Hm… I’d have a hard time just throwing it all away, but I’d consider tossing big chunks–either by time, or sort by sender and just toss ones from certain lists. It depends on how much you think there might be in there… Best wishes either way! And congrats, Patty L!
by Fedora
on August 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
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Congratulations, Patty L!
Wow, Tessa I definitely could not handle 4 months without internet. If they aren’t imperative… I might go with the “delete all” - because you’re just going to get more, and when will you have the chance to go through all of them?
Or if you could somehow back them up somewhere else/save them to go through later while clearing the account…
Either way, good luck with what you do!
by limecello
on August 7th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
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I would delete them all and start over. If it is that important the person that is trying to e-mail you will e-mail you again.
by Quilt lady
on August 7th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
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I’m with Sandra Hyatt on this one. Delete them all and start over. If there was something uber important in all of those messages, the sender will resent. Otherwise, just shrug it off and look forward to the onslaught of new messages that are sure to come your way.
by Karin
on August 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
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It’s easy to say delete them but I am a horder as well.
If I let my emails get away from me ( for example if the computer is broken) for several weeks, I have to go through the messages.
On the occasions that I deleted them, they haunted me for a long time. It would have been better for my peace of mind to have spent the time to go through them.
Try taking 30 minutes a day and go through them that way until they are done.
by Stacie Mc
on August 7th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
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I too am a hoarder. I get way behind because life interfers (one daughter moved back home and got married and another left for college and her own apt). I put each month in it’s own separate folder to peruse another day. Eventually some will be so old I will have no problem deleting but until then I keep everything.
by catslady
on August 7th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
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I would delete all messages before a certain date. There is no way you can go through all of them so just get rid of them.
by Maureen
on August 8th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
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When I get back from my writer’s retreat this Sunday, I’m going to do it! I have over 2300 emails in my inbox and can’t seem to make any progress culling them. It’s stressfull just looking at it grow. Nothing’s so important I can’t live without them–other than messages from editors and agent, which are saved to their own folders. Just the thought of decimating that file feels liberating!!
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Yup, delete them; like Quilt Lady said, if important, they will contact you again.
Congrats, Patty L from Pat L. Enjoy your prized. My family calls me Patty, so do I get a prize too? LOL. 
by Pat L
on August 9th, 2008 at 7:33 am
