One Drive Storage Limit Pushed me Positively Mentally & Eco-Friendly
It was planned years ago to clean up my email inboxes, but I have never stepped to deeply clean them.
As a young researcher, it was difficult to keep backups from my unpublished research work. Also, as I live abroad I have the necessity to keep updated e-copies from my documents over the past 10 years. So, for me, it is challenging to just delete everything without going through every single email and attachment.
I loved the pressure came to me from Windows regarding the hold they put on my personal email. Initially, I had that reminder popped on my email page every time I log showing me that I exceeded the 5-GB free storage limit and I have to take an action otherwise I would have a hold on my account starting from February 2023. The reminder was offering to either purchase an upgraded storage limit or I have to empty the space I exceeded. I knew that was only a first reminder but I have sometime until then. Anyway, I found my email on hold eventually on April 28th. “Oh, yeah! Here, we go, Hana!” I said to myself shaking my head with a smile.
I am glad I have that hold putting me in a corner to skip no place until I clean my personal email folders. Yep, because it pushed me positively toward eco-friendly behaviours to save the environment. It also put me directly on duty to declutter my 20-year-old email.
So! Yesterday, Windows put my email on-hold that I can't receive or send any emails since I exceeded more than 150% the free storage limit (5 GB). They give me the choice to upgrade and subscribe for more storage space (of course paid) or empty my storage to return to limited free 5 GB.
The first step I took was to delete everything earlier than 2012. This step only brought my email storage to 110%. Then, I swept everything received as advertisement. This step did not only release the hold on my email for being under the free storage limit, but also made my OneDrive storage less than 60% full.
After that, I had to go a year by year through my emails and attachments from 2012 up to today date. I deleted everything not needed to stay anymore in my mailbox or OneDrive storage. I needed 1 full day to finish this and happy I did.
It was overwhelming emotionally. I went though too much including cleaning emails came from sending those friends & social emails at the time I was undergrad and sometime before 2010. It felt great to dump the countless emails of attempting fishing and “from-no-where” nonsense advertisements. It was painful to reopen emails brought difficulties and sad memories, as painful as deleting dear emails brought good memories and happy news. I just need to proceed in peace with every aspect in my life currently moving forward with no pressure from the past.
Although I still have by the time writing this post 1,343 emails left from January 2012 until the date of today, I discarded forever from over 28K emails just during the this deep cleaning.
I actually have done multiple cleaning on my emails the past 10 years including one big cleaning sometimes in 2015 when I unsubscribed and blocked all the advertising emails either or I opt-in their lists.
This time, I learned several lessons.
There are lots businesses do not care if you subscribe or not, they even do not care if you unsubscribe several times. These business will return to you with tones of emails again sooner than later.
As a woman who is arranging and preparing her mindset toward building her own community online, I will keep reminding myself how the email list is created to serve the clients peacefully without bugging them or filling their email boxes with too many emails telling the same thing over and over.
When I send emails, I will make them as concise as simple as not pollutant as possible. So, I will avoid attaching any images or other medias. I will simply write texts in the “short & sweet” style, and provide links for my medias. This will contribute better for the people well being and for the environment health, so no full storages over the internet with unlimited copies for the same thing of these large size medias like podcasts, images, videos.
I will keep my good habits with everyday unsubscribing from services I don’t want to receive any longer, email-lists that I may not even opt-in & deleting the emails I don’t need to keep in my inbox on daily base.
I am going to do this deep cleaning every 1-2 years to discard from any emails older than 10 years and/or no longer needed.
I definitely will keep practicing the habit of checking email inboxes once every day or every other day; not 100x+ every single day. Nothing matters more than my wellbeing mentally & physically.
