Thursday, September 30, 2010

I Declare Today...

No email day! I think I've professed my great love of email before. But dude. I am exhausted. Every time I think I'm caught up, I get like 25 more.

So today, now, as of this moment, I'm declaring a complete and total email freezeout for the next 24 hours. I just can't take anymore!

I might really hate this decision tomorrow when I get on to check my email, but for now, I'm at the edge of the cliff. And I'm jumping. So, don't email me, and if you do, don't expect an answer until tomorrow.

What's overwhelming you right now? What normally doesn't bother you that has become a thorn in your side? I'm lookin' at you, Gmail.

68 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

Mine is just too much to do. I hate when I have files sitting in my office that I can't get to as quick as I'd like. I end up skipping my lunch hour to get caught up. Good for you ignoring e-mail for a day.

Stephanie McGee said...

What's overwhelming me? School. It's not a week unless I have at least one tear-filled meltdown, usually in my car on the way to work or sometimes at night before going to bed.

Work's a little overwhelming too.

And just trying to juggle everything.

Good luck with your e-mail freezeout.

G. B. Miller said...

My main blog.

At the moment its becoming a major thorn in my side because I'm running out of things to write about.

My other ones (a picture blog, a junk blog and a private short story blog) I have no problems with since the frequency is at least a week between posts.

This is one however, is rapidly becoming a pain because the only topic I got left to mine is what I don't want to the blog completely into.

Writing. Specifically, writing bad.

Samantha Vérant said...

I'm overwhelmed with my manuscript. I have twelve more bullet points to tackle before it's completed - around 8-10k, which isn't much, but...

Christine Fonseca said...

Dude! I get that. When I am away from work for ONE DAY...300 emails! Kid you not! Have fun today...and no emails from me :D.

As for the cliff, can't help you there...you know why *wink*

Anonymous said...

Elana, I dread missing a day of email because it means I'll have twice as much the next day! It just piles up and overwhelms me. Good luck with holding off.

Matthew MacNish said...

Phew, thank goodness we got our convo out of the way. Just kidding. Sometimes you do need some time ...

Liza said...

Yup, email. It's a love/hate thing. Hope you get none today and tomorrow is manageable.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

I'm right there with you on the email front. My inbox hasn't seen zero since I started blogging. I'd have to say, with school starting, the four kids' schedules are getting to me too. It's all too grueling. ";-)

Unknown said...

I've reached a point with my e-mail where I have priorities. Business e-mails are always responded to right away, whereas I may or may not answer the "hey, how are you"s. But I couldn't abandon it for a day, or I'd probably grow antsy!

But my manuscript is definitely daunting me. I wish my brain would connect with my computer, and just write it -- with perfect sentence structure -- all by itself.

Kelly Lyman said...

Cleaning my house! Even when I am able to take the time and really clean a room it suddenly becomes dirty and cluttered within the hour! And my MS. I just received my edits from my last two CPs and I just can't get motivated to make the changes. The shame of it is after these revisions, I should be good to go to find some Beta Readers- so I'm one step closer to the whole query process, which should be exciting but I just can't get with it.

Anonymous said...

I have a love-hate relationship with social media. It's become like chocolate. Once I get started on Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc., it's hard to pull away and get lost in writing my novel.

Andrea Mack said...

Elana, I'm feeling overwhelmed this week too - by school events and household have-to's (orthodontist app'ts, billing errors) and all I want is a quiet morning to get back to my writing!

Bish Denham said...

I'm overwhelmed by procrastination.

Karen Lange said...

I hear you. Goodness do I hear you. Have so many projects going right now and they are all a priority. Feel a little like I'm being swallowed up. And so this is where the personal pep talk comes in...Ok Karen, keep putting one foot in front of the other. It'll all get done and you can move on. And eventually clean your house.

Have a good email free day!
Karen :)

Yvonne Osborne said...

Social media is overwhelming. This is why I'm not even doing the Twitter thing. Honestly, do we need all of this? Trying to query agents for one novel while finishing another and working on my short for the Literary Lab, there's barely time for bloggy friends. Sometimes I long for the days when all I did was write, totally oblivious to who my potential audience might be, or whether or not I would ever be agented, just writing for the love of it.

Erinn said...

My real life is overwheming me. Between time with my family and my job and my cranky mood because I'm not writing, I'm swamped.

Kelly aka yllektra(I Work For Books) said...

Awws, sorry everything is so overwhelming atm.

For me it is work, but mostly commuting.
I spend a minimum of 3 hours every day commuting and when I get home I am exhausted and have no energy for anything! :(

So, sometimes i just take some days off too! lol

Enjoy your email-free day!

Nicole Zoltack said...

Not having enough time to get everything done that I want to in a day and not getting enough sleep trying to get said things done.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'm feeling overwhelemed with all my pre-book release stuff!

Carolyn V. said...

I think I'm overwhelmed with the fb/internet stuff.

Theresa Milstein said...

Blogging is an unforgiving beast. Can't keep up! And I participated in Tahereh's Banned Books reviewing today. I want to comment on all the other participants' blogs. And I have my own WIP to work on.

Misha Gerrick said...

My room started to annoy me so much that I spent the whole day shifting furniture, repacking closets, and organising my books...

The HORROR!

I springcleaned!

Sage Ravenwood said...

Overwhelming guilt over not keeping up with everyone's blog lately...and of course revisions. I loathe them - unfortunately they're a necessary evil; which is glaringly apparent now I'm in the midst of them. (Hugs)Indigo

Anonymous said...

LOL. Yeah....that email. . .. But to me, it's not worth it to have 100 to review instead of ten to fifteen coming in at a time. But I'm a freak that way. I just recently downsized out of one of my critique groups, so I'm not getting all those daily emails anymore, that helped.

Now it's just the one crit group and crit partners. . . less email. *sighs with satisfaction*

Just wait, though, when your book comes out and everyone reads it, you'll be getting tons of fan emails! Woo-Hoo!

Unknown said...

Overwhelmed...you could say that. I feel you sister. Email has to be the worst. Here is my philosophy: It will still be there tomorrow. You may even find half of the email issues have solved themselves and are obsolete, so just delete. :)

Anonymous said...

Precisely what Nicole said:

Not having enough time to get everything done that I want to in a day and not getting enough sleep trying to get said things done.

Slamdunk said...

I can relate, and I think a freeze out from time to time is a great idea.

The kids have the week off from school, so I am in a deep hole with everything--blogging included.

Ishta Mercurio said...

Housework. And just living life (meaning, doing housework and cooking and grocery shopping) while trying to keep up with writing and blogging and not letting my friends think I've forgotten about them.

But mostly housework.

Jewel Allen said...

Smart smart move.

My overwhelmer: Checking out other people's blogs like a good bloggy friend. I wish I had more time for that. :-)

Patti said...

I'm finding more and more I don't like talking to people on the phone, I'm really starting to isolate myself, which is so not good.

Carolina M. Valdez Schneider said...

Great idea! Except, I have email dating back to...April, I think, that I've yet to get to. Oh man.

Southpaw said...

On this subject we a polar opposites. I hate email. Bleck. Noise is overwhelming me right now. For a few months now there has been construction and LOUD NOISES and I close to crazy because of it.

Sandy said...

School is perhaps the primary source of my mental breakdowns on the daily basis, with 1000+ unread entries in Google Reader the secondary source. :)

Creepy Query Girl said...

sick.kids. is completely overwhelming. I've got two down with these mutant french throat viruses and one with a cold and her very first cavity which led to an impromptu visit chez le dentiste.

Heather Kelly said...

I got overwhelmed by school related email, with my kids in different schools this year, so I went offline from email for a WEEK. I missed like three deadlines, and started sweating bullets when I opened that thing up for the first time. It felt like a ticking time bomb. But it ended up all okay. The world kept spinning. :) As it will for you!! It's good to unplug for a little while.

Stina said...

School paperwork. With three kids, it's a lot of paperwork. And the homework. None of them are used to this much (and I have to keep telling them to do it). It's not too bad for my 10 yo, but my 8 yo goes to a Spanish bilingual school (as does his 6 yo sister), and so now he has spelling lists in English and Spanish and well as home reading in both languages.

Susan R. Mills said...

Laundry! That's a thorn in my side right now. Enjoy your email free day.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Take that break - I don't blame you one bit!! :-)

Anonymous said...

I hardly ever get email so I can't really relate. But I can imagine. Feel free to take a break!

I'm not really feeling overwhelmed about anything. Life's going rather swimmingly for a change. :)

Claire Dawn said...

It's actually really hard when I miss a day on the bloggosphere. Like yesterday: allergies. Today: 8 mil unread blog posts...

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

I ignore email and blogs on football weekends and pay for it on Monday -- and sometimes on into Tuesday and Wednesday.
LOL But it's a short season so I'm okay with letting it go.
Good luck with your email blackout.

Caroline Starr Rose said...

Good for you. I don't know how you do it all, esp. when I think of all the new responsibilities next year will bring.

Wait. I know how. You're Superwoman. ;)

Conda Douglas said...

Great idea--walk away from e-mail--my overwhelm is prepping for an upcoming vacation.

Sara B. Larson said...

Um... does everything count? I'm just plain overwhelmed. I have one HUGE thorn in my side at the moment, but I don't think I'm going to mention it on a public forum. But it sucks.

Jennie Englund said...

Is it bad if I say... my husband?
(who I love deeply, and who I've been with since we were 8, but who keeps interrupting my thinking/writing/reading when he's off shift).

Michelle Walkenhorst said...

I'm overwhelmed

1)by my blogs. Family:I'm always behind and Community: I frequently miss events that I put on there.

2)with the brainstorming of how to help my boys behave well in class.

3) by everything else that needs to get done, but I just don't wanna.

I should have a computer free day.

JEM said...

Uh, LIFE.

PK HREZO said...

LOL! I don't blame you. Just say NO! It can all wait... that's the beauty of technology.... you simply turn it off.

Lisa_Gibson said...

I won't even go into all that's overwhelming me right now. Thankfully I've jumped back in and #amwriting again. Yay! So my stress level will just have to wait. :) Enjoy the time away from email.
Lisa ~ YA Literature Lover

Janet Johnson said...

Not to keep tooting the same horn, but laundry! Totally overwhelming. I need to become independently wealthy so I can just send it out.

Enjoy your break!

Unknown said...

You should have told me!!! I would have declared the same thing today! Gmail stares at me, haunts me, tells me to love it, but never gives me a day off. It's ridiculous, I feel trapped, not able to breathe.

A nightmare.

So enjoy your beloved day off. When you are overwhelmed tomorrow, just remember GMAIL DOESN'T OWN YOU!

Serena said...

See i recently simplifide my email account. I deleted my old one, and created a new account with only the people that i talk to on a regular basis, call it harsh but any one that i hadn't spoken to for six months got ditched. leaving me with only ten contacts and a daily empty e-mail account. I would like to expand again, but to people who are actully going to talk rather than send me silly chain letters, and jokes all the time.

Shannon Messenger said...

Um...you know what's overwhelming me. I've been emailing you about it. Ha! :)

And dude--if you need help, just..yanno...email me. :)

L. E. Neighbour said...

wish I'd read this earlier LOL I get like that sometimes... I wish I could just walk away from the internet forever. But that's where my friends live :( so I can't! ^_^
but yeah... sometimes going away is worse. Like when I leave FB for a day and come back to 53 billion notifications >_< yeah. Not cool. It's not easy being me :P

mshatch said...

work has become a major thorn in my side. It interferes with my writing.

Jemi Fraser said...

People who don't put the kids first when that is supposed to be their job are driving me batty lately!!!

Donea Lee said...

Oops...sorry. I did e-mail you today, but only in response. My bad. :) You, of course, don't have to read it today. Or even tomorrow. It's cool. I'm not too needy. Enjoy your day off!

What overwhelms me? My own brain. I think waaaay too much, over-analyze, become completely indecisive to the point that when I finally do make a decision about something, it's often too late to do anything about it. Like today - I seriously need to do laundry and pack for a trip I'm leaving for early Saturday morning. It was either that or watch tv and mess around on the computer. Well... maybe you can tell which decision won out. Crap...it's going to be a late night....better run. My "darks" are calling.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on the email thing.

Write Chick said...

The email thing on top of the facebooking thing on top of working full time on top of being totally sick with the flu on top of needing to a write a little bit and exercise a little bit...well...it's got me a tiny smidge stressed.

Write Chick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KA said...

Can I take a motherhood freezeout?

ali cross said...

LOL So THAT's what you meant by "email cone of silence". :D

Jennifer Hillier said...

What a fabulous idea!

I constantly fantasize about throwing my blackberry out the window.

Then it pings and I eagerly check to see who it is.

It's a vicious circle.

Hannah said...

Email does that to me as well. Also when I open my google reader and see how it never goes below 1000. LOL!

Lisa Richards/alterlisa said...

Too many blogs to read which is evidence in the fact that it is 10/7 and I'm reading a 9/30 entry.

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