When email piles up in my inbox, it is usually because I am avoiding taking action. A message with an old timestamp is usually related to a task I don’t want to do or to a question I’m not sure how to answer. For me, a messy inbox signals procrastination, and the more I avoid email the more it piles up.

Lately, I have been working to clear my inbox every night. This doesn’t mean I’ve necessarily answered every message, but I have at least archived or sorted what has been sent to me. I have folders labeled “To do” and “Respond to.” This saves me time because I am no longer reading and re-reading and reading again the messages in my inbox and telling myself “I need to reply to that” and “Still haven’t replied to that” and “I really need to do that thing that person is asking about.” It’s less repetitive. My mind gets out of a recursive loop.

Clearing my inbox also makes me act on messages I’m avoiding, so I get more [...]

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Last month I spent 10 minutes in the makeup aisle deciding between “Rum Raisin” and “Dark Brown” eyeliner. I was absent the day they taught 13-year-old girls how to use makeup, so I’ve only been learning recently. As my red shopping basket grew heavier, I knew it was absurd to be standing there debating the relative benefits of dark brown over a slightly less dark brown with a cutesy name, but I just couldn’t make up my mind about makeup.

“Rum raisin is a much better name than dark brown,” I thought as I picked it off the metal rod.

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t judge a color by its name. Dark brown might better match your coloring,” I thought as I put it back and reached for the other product.

“Wait, if I wear an orange dress does brown break a rule of complimentary colors? Is there a color wheel anywhere around here?” I looked around and had flashbacks to the color theory segment in my Graphic Design I class.

Rum raisin or dark brown? Rum raisin or [...]

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