Everyday Canvas

E-Mail and Compulsivity

Prompt: Checking email, most of us don't have jobs that require it but we do it anyway. It is simply compulsive behavior.

What other compulsive behaviors do you have? How can we get control of our compulsiveness?

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E-mails, Ohhh! Okay, don’t check them and see what happens.

I check my e-mails, not because I want to or it is a compulsive behavior, but because, if I don’t, there will be much to lose. In the long run, however, I organized a system, which hasn’t failed me so far. I just don’t use Outlook. I have five or so online e-mails. All except two are for those mails that are not absolutely necessary but those that the site owners insist on sending me. Why every single site I visit demands my e-mail and then floods it with stuff that is of no interest to me is beyond me to comprehend. To those addies I log in about once a month and delete everything in one swoop.

One of the two addies that I check all the time is here in WdC. The other is the e-mail addy that I use for my real-life stuff, which I check once or twice a day. WdC e-mail is for WdC; I never use it for out-of-site things and never give it to people I know out of site.

As to current compulsive behavior, I can’t stand seeing empty pages at the ends of periodicals for notes such as shareholder reports. I always cut them out and keep them as note paper or carry them in my purse for quick note taking, even though my notes sometimes overwhelm me and I have much more than enough paper and note-books lying around. This behavior sprung from my once-upon-a-time observation of third world countries, where people and school children did not have enough paper to write on. To this day, I hate waste, especially waste of paper.

One way to control compulsiveness is to catch ourselves in the act, and reverse the action. Until some time ago, I had the compulsive crossing of my legs as soon as I sat down. When I learned that hurt the circulation, I trained myself to sit with both legs on the ground. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you, To this day, sometimes I forget and cross my legs, then I correct myself.