1 Write Way

Meltdown Moment

Usually I don’t like to get too personal on my blog. I try to avoid writing in the heat of the moment. But here’s the thing: I’m trying to get organized. I’m trying to find a balance between my online and offline life. I am, in fact, trying to spend less time wasting time online. I want to make every minute I spend online to be at least a good quality minute, if not a great one.

So when I logged into my Gmail account a few minutes ago to quickly check my email, I found my inbox totally turned upside down. All my messages have been sorted by Category, not by date, which is what I am used to. I almost cried because unless I can quickly figure out how to reorganize my messages, it’s going to take a long, long time for me to sort through the mess.

Thank you, Gmail, for thinking I’m too stupid to know how best to organize my inbox!

It might be faster for me to just dump Gmail altogether. We’ll see.

Thanks for reading. I feel a little bit better now 🙂

Marie A Bailey

40 responses to “Meltdown Moment”

  2. Yep, dump it! How dare they. People will message again upon seeing this. It is so frustrating all the constant changes without warning. I keep forgetting to check mine, oops. Hugs

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    • I don’t mind learning new things when the change is relevant and nonarbitrary. But for me, Gmail is getting more like Facebook. And this particular change seems very nonproductive. I did give Gmail immediate feedback. Let’s see how they care 😉

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  5. I suspect it’s an easy fix. Do you have Outlook on your computer by any chance? Consider setting that up as your default system. People love to bash Microsoft, but nothing comes close to Outlook for email management.

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    • I have Mail (Mac user) so I could just use my Mail client. I don’t know if there is Outlook for the Mac. I’ve used Outlook at work for years and, yes, it is great for email management.

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  6. I have gmail, but all my mail is sorted by Microsoft Outlook into respective folders, so I have never had problems specifically gmail related. I have a half dozen account names that all have respective files. At the top of any Outlook account, I can click date, category, subject, newest, oldest and so on. In a hurry, I can get an alphabetized sender name list, so I can find a particular person easily. I see you don’t want to go that route. My husband switched me over to Outlook a long while back because that’s what he uses at work and was familiar with. Now I couldn’t part with it. Hope you find a solution that works for you soon.

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  7. Oh Marie, I’m so sorry. It always seems things turn upside down when we’re already stressed for time and trying to be better organized. I’m not a big fan of Gmail, although I do use it for my blog. Funny thing, about 6 months ago, all of sudden I stopped receiving email notifications for new blog posts. I don’t know if it was Gmail or WP. I do use Hotmail for other email and I like it much better. I hope you’ve been able to de-stress! xo

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    • Thanks, Jill, I am de-stressed. If you have time to read today’s post, you’ll learn that I had simply logged into an old account. That’s the problem with multitasking: my “wires” get crossed. Anyway, it’s all good, but I do need to think about a better way to manage my email. Thanks for the suggestions!

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  10. Hi, Marie! That doesn’t surprise me re: gmail. They think they’re smarter than you are,smarter than everybody (they are not) and their “help” is often counter-productive. They know too much about everybody already! Watch out for google, guys. It’s not healthy . . . 😉

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    • Thanks, Margaret. I don’t think any social media is really healthy. Just have to deal with it with open eyes and, ideally, no distractions 😉

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      • You’re so right. It often brings out the worst in people by virtue of the fact they are anonymous, or, perversely, their desire for attention, “fame.” This “likes” business is crazy! It’s a mania. I want to go back to writing letters!

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        • FYI, I use hotmail, it’s still pretty simple and straightforward (why I like it), Outlook sometimes and a private website based email service. Who has time to have their brains suddenly scrambled by arbitrary, unannounced changes in their email delivery and appearance?

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      • Simplicity! I re-read snatches of Thoreau’s “Walden Pond” every now and then to bring me back to what really matters 🙂 Usually it inspires me to (haha) go plant some beans, read by candle light, and stare at the stars at night.

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    • I think you’re right. I did some searching and found a number of links on reverting back to the old interface. But those posts were all dated at least a year ago, another clue that I got something wrong. Andra, I had inadvertently opened an email account that I hadn’t accessed in over a year and so it wasn’t organized. Rather than give myself time to realize I was in the wrong spot, I simply fall apart. Sometimes technology does that to me 😉

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  12. Yikes. Yeah, mine was that way when I first started up and it still sort of throws me off. Chronological is so much better because I don’t trust it to understand the proper tab to put an email in! It doesn’t KNOW me. (except maybe google does, if it’s reading my blog and tracking my search history…)

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    • Girl, the NSA is tracking you, I’m sure 🙂 Long story but it turns out I was looking at an old email account that I had forgotten all about. So it wasn’t organized at all and I freaked out. My primary account is fine although, like you, I don’t care for the organizational tabs. My life doesn’t “sort” that way 🙂

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  13. Marie, ugh, I so understand. It’s so frustrating to have online time suck. We should be able to be out there smelling the roses more often instead of dealing with wastes-of-time like that!! xo

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    • Especially when that waste of time is of my own making 🙂 Turns out I was simply accessing a different email account, one that I hadn’t looked at in over a year. In the immortal words of Emily Litella (Gilda Radner): “Never mind.”

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