Email Inboxes, Filing Baskets and the Paperless Office

In another life, before I was a writer, I was a Personal Assistant running about in a business suit and mainly working for big city companies and by coincidence, often oil  companies. A very different professional life to what I have now where my favourite days are those where I often stay in my pyjamas until 11 writing and doing writing-related things, including answering emails.

Of all the things I could choose to do on last Monday’s Labour Day holiday, cleaning out my email inbox won out. I just about spent the whole day, reading, answering, taking action and following up every single email. Even though more have come in since then I’m very pleased to say there are only 6 remaining – and I’m waiting on ‘other people’ to take action on those. I’m a realist, I know it won’t last, but gosh it’s a lovely feeling!

And it caused me to wonder about the older style in-boxes, the wire baskets, often stacked one upon the other in business offices and I remembered how that piece of paper or report I didn’t want to deal with would somehow end up languishing on the bottom of the pile. Emails are no different.

When I left that professional life to have children there was talk of the paperless office, which causes me to laugh because although we have those ever expanding email inboxes, and our lives on our laptops and ipads, we still have those piles of papers lurking in hidden cupboards and corners, waiting, waiting.