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Now that I am starting my own freelance business, I have had to take a look at my organizational skills and look for ways to improve them. I’m the first to admit that this is difficult for me, but I’ve decided that I must be more efficient.  In order to do so, I will have to complete one very small task at a time.

I’ve divided my organization project into two areas “Virtual and Physical.” I am using a method I made up on the fly (on the fly meaning as I’m typing this) called DIPP: “Deletion, Inventory, Placement, and Planning.”  Since deletion is the first task, over the past two weekends I have been getting rid of everything in my house that I don’t want, can’t use, or haven’t used at all or in while. Previously, I would try to keep everything I’ve purchased because I don’t want to live with the reality that I’d wasted money. I had to get over that mental barrier. My house is looking better already. Before I moved on to Inventory of my house/belongings, I decided to proceed with deletion of virtual things.

I began this process by deleting my old myspace page and facebook accounts and cleaning out all 7 of my email boxes. I have to say that completing this task was 10x more satisfying than cleaning out my physical environment although I would have no peace without accomplishing both types of cleanup.

Nevertheless, as I went through my email box, I saw a glimpse of my past self that made me laugh, cry, and get a little uncomfortable. There were emails from various guys that I had forgotten I dated. The fact that I’d forgotten they existed put a current situation in perspective. Its unbelievable how much time you can spend obsessing over someone that isn’t worth the space you have in your inbox, much less space available in your mind and heart.

I also found emails from blacksingles.com (I joined that site??), eharmony (I never even used my free subscription), Tagged (oh boy!) and various weightloss and fitness sites. Now a year or two later, there’s a lot less of that in my email box although I’m concerned that I still haven’t conquered some of the related issues.

My emails also reminded that I’ve applied for a zillion jobs in the 6 years since I graduated from college and put together too many versions of my resume and writing portfolio than I’d care to count.  I felt a sense of pride in knowing that success didn’t fall in lap—I worked to be where I am today.

Additionally, according to my hotmail account, I’ve signed up on the listservs of graduate schools across the country. I also applied to graduate school twice (once to study national security and another time to study organizational development) and showed up for classes a total of zero times. I thought that was pretty interesting.

From the looks of my old emails, I’ve grown a lot. 2 years later, I’m even seeing less evidence of the obsession I used to have with shoes and pretend-balling. There are less emails from Zappos.com and Eviplist, and more from Hootsuite and software companies.

Who knew old emails could tell a story almost as good as any well-kept journal?