I don’t know about you but although I sort through things, save details away as I go and move my communications trail out of my inbox, come the end of year there seems to be an awful lot of emails accumulated there. Yes, I know those systems ‘S’ and ‘Green’ folk will just scratch their heads and perhaps chuckle at us ‘Blues’ and ‘Red’s’ that we cannot have regularly reduced our inbox counter to under 20.

But, I am not a ‘Green’ or ‘S’, and I get hundreds of emails every day – literally. Away with the excuses now, let us just say half the population falls into the group that does have a pile-up of emails in your inbox come the end of year, and despite all good intention, there is too many to look through, here is what to do.

First of all, decide that you want to curb the masses and create some head-space both in your head and inside the digital head – yes your computer. Once, that is done, and you have made a commitment to yourself to tackle the email mount – getting started is key.

Step 1
Search through from the bottom up. If you have not needed the contact and content from an email that has sat there all year, you are most likely not going to in a hurry. So, highlight the lot up until you find something of relevance, then look at these so-called important emails, and delete the rest.

Start with key search terms like subscriptions to industry newsletters and those you only subscribed to get the free download. In future, unsubscribe the moment you have received the download – unless of course, you are genuinely interested.

Unsubscribe, delete the lot or if you think they are of value, stay subscribed but get rid of a bunch of them. I am sure you can access anything relevant and timely on their website and before long you will have dozens more of their e-news filling your inbox.

Step 2
Those emails of relevance, trails that you might want to reuse or follow up, push those into a folder, maybe call one ‘To Sort’ ‘To Follow Up’ or anything relevant that is topical – essentially moving these all out of your inbox. Find senders with whom you have little to do now, but did have a lot of exchange earlier in the year. Find all the emails, scan loosely over the most recent or relevant and most likely when in doubt – click the delete button, you won’t believe how freeing this is.

Step 3
Personal emails. Now, if you are anything like most people, you will have duplicates of messaging going on across text, messenger, phone and email. And, unless you are a good systems-nerd won’t have deleted trails as you go. Whether it is your ex’s chasing up emails of something rather, the reminders from your partner to get this or that done on your way home from the office, or long exchanges from those days when you where busy chatting with each other about the meaning of life or how hard your heart beats for each other rather than do actual work – well, all these would have outlived their due date. Simple treatment is – highlight and delete.

Step 4
Only really keep the most important, relevant, current and hard-to-retrace communications, lift these into a folder titled ‘Important Past Mail’ or straight into topical folders – otherwise, be ruthless and highlight, do a quick (and I mean quick) scan as of there is anything of value, give it one-and-a-half seconds of contemplation and then ‘poof’ let them all disappear in an instant.

By now, your inbox should look a lot less crowded and you feel a lot lighter. Letting is not easy, but feels great!

While the inbox might just be the starting point with oodles of documents and desktop saved screenshots yet to go, at least you have made some space for the incoming, so with the new year – new and fresh business can actually come in the front door.

Key Secret – is maintenance. Unsubscribe from everything that is not essential; reduce email writing/sending and back and forth wherever possible, delete things as soon as they are done or transferred, and make a habit of picking up the phone for those things that can be done on the phone.

Not only will this build great rapport with colleagues, clients and stakeholders, but give you a break from the screen you are staring at all day long, but it will make both your and their day. Often, the time it takes to write a sensible email in the right tone and with all the key questions, a call could have been done and dusted. Plus, you get the answers straight away, rather than wait for a reply or worse have to go back and forth with niceties and rehashing the same question three times.

I think you get the idea. Before the year kicks in properly, create some inbox space, and make a commitment to minimise emails and manage those that come in promptly – delete, delete, delete – keep only the essential stuff.

Happy inbox clearing!

Following a recommendation of a good friend, I went and had booked a session with Queenie (yes her real name) from IntoPeople and as arranged turned up at 9.30am not really knowing what to expect, so I opted to not really hold much of an expectation, but just be open.

My instruction had been to reflect on 3 things, be it physical, emotional, rational and professional) I wanted to work on, so I did. And, without giving away her magic tricks, after a chat and first easing in to the session I found myself on the table relaxing under a cosy blanket as Queenie started to read (divining rods in hand) my aura and energy.

I am very sensitive tio subtler energies – always have – like most of us. And, I coukld sense she was onto something, and allowed myself to just stay open and relaxed to the process. I am not sure how much later, but she nudged me to invite me back into the room slowly. I did.

As we chated about the process and her discoveries it became aparent not only to me that there were these key junctions in my life looking back that took me further onto my mission and others that diverted, energies that hindered or at least made it more difficult for me to really push on with my life’s purpose, and it was refreshing to have her ‘see’ me so well, although we had only met today.

The things she had found resonated deeply with me, the suggestions she made, questions she asked allowed me to recognise my path, how these things had affected it and how much more clarity I had for it…  Not that this was my first session of sorts, but my first and not the last with Queenie, but I gained a senses of enhanced connectedness to myself – and that was powerful and refreshing – perfect for the third day of the new year.

I went home after some more sharing and reflecting to rest, drink water and eat. It was 1pm when I left, an extra long session (obviously) and spend the rest of the day observing me, being present with me and taking it easy. What struck me most was that as we talked after the session, I could feel how much of me she had been able to see in such short time and how I could feel an enhanced depth to me as I spoke of things in my life.

In recognising me, my mission and how and where I was holding myself back at times or had done so, I felt empowered, focused and clear on what I had to do next. This was priceless and showed me just how amazing it is to ‘know thy self’ and to be at ease with that – no matter what.

Most of us have been raised to focus so much on the world on the outside, and many of us still are guided by that, feel about ourselves depending on how others see us and so on…  We are usually not taught how to know oneself better and certainly not to then dwell in it fully in the face of the world around us – without filtering, compromising or holding back.

So, for me it was a most joyous and re-affirmative experience today, one that left me feeling in touch with me and encouraged to cherish my relationship and willingness to be seen as me – no matter what. Am booked again next week…  Just had to share, despite all my many years of working on myself, personal development workshops, training, books and seminars, that today I received something that no – I could not have done for me – myself. Happy knowing thy self! =)

It is the second day of the new year, and I seem to have taken more of my lack of sleep into the new year than I had intended. None the less, I am nurturing myself with rest, good food and gentle yet focussed attention to my tasks at hand.

As such, I went about transitioning some of my domain names over to our new server, yet it took 4 chats with tech support to get the right directive to get to where I wanted to get. Seems like that most questions get answered with links to the wrong answers at first and I soon realised, that with patience and clarity of what I needed – eventually, I did get the right tips and access to my Cpanel.

It appeares, that they have set it out in such a clustered way so that more folks will simply hire the pro service to get it done for them. Clever really, just not what I was after. Observing my own attitude in this though, after getting slightly annoyed by the hidden or veiled features and then the answers that were almost insulting my intelligence, I allowed myself to relax and breathe and be extra clear in my communication as to what I was after and in the end I did get the help I needed.

So, why is it, that the first answer seems to be for the dumb. Is it that I ask dumb questions or simply did not narrow to scope of answers down enough. Interestingly enough, in the afternoon I went to office works to print some material, quite a few pages actually, and after surrendering to the fact that they were super busy, opted for the self-serve option.

And, printing some 300 pages did finally come off the press in a good way. Forward-thinking as I am (most of the time) I had brought massive elephant clips to hold the loose pages together. Then as I was about to go, I checked out the binding options and surely the joy of reading 300 pages of neatly bound manuscript is more pleasant than just corner clipped and soon fraying pages – so I opted to have them bound. Rebecca the young custmer service staff was more than helpful yet ask me to come back in an hour and a half later to pick my work up.

At first I was perplexed as I assumed to be out of the shop in minuted with the thing all sorted. Then I stopped to think and was soon happy to trade a little of my time now for the greater pleasure and longer lasting version of my papers. I accepted and said I would run an errand and pop back in a while. She was nice and friendly and pleasant, so I felt good leaving my papers in her care.

I went to the store, caught up on some small tasks on social that were due and reflected a little on my day and the evening ahead. Within less than an hour I came back and sure there, just being completed before my eyes, the final touches were my manuscript neatly bound with cover and back. Definitely worth the extra cost and time.

We can easily be lost in our perceived timeline and really, who are we to determine the perfect time for anything. It is like when we rush, we end up behind the bus or truck and get delayed event the more as if we are not meant to get were we are going sooner. Or we assume that something will take a few minutes but then we are still there an hour later…  I believe, that there is the right time for everything. Devine time if you like.

And, today, I needed to get slowed down and put on hold to get with the right time. And, once I did, well, everything flowed and not only did I travel more conscious, present and calmly, but I got a better result in the end for it too. Made me think, that the saying ‘Patience is a Virtue’ somewhat rings true today. 😉

New Years Day! The very start of 2018 and as half the population was still asleep, hung over or perhaps still lingering on in the celebrations of a year gone by and the new one – well barely started, I went walking on the foreshore just down the bay a bit from St Kilda.

The day was balmy and bay looked as attractive as it can – with many a folk diving into the wet to relieve themselves from the growing heat of the day. I sat at North Point for a pot of chai tea, having decided to leave Melbourne’s most loved beverage off my menu in 2018 – coffee.

Watching the people as they hustle to get a table and as they scoff down breakfast and coffees was a surreal backdrop to my contemplation of life’s simple truths I had been meditating on the night before – alcohol-free and just until around midnight, then a quick view of the ridiculous amount of money that was burned to light the night sky and then, well bedtime.

The result was, that apart from a lack of hangover symptoms, I was feeling rather clear, fresh and somewhat contemplative. So, as I finished my chai and water and had sufficiently watched the ongoing flood of new years diners, I got up, paid and went gently back along the foreshore toward Elwood beach. Not long had passed and I opted for one of the weathered park benches propped perfectly overlooking the water’s edge.

As I sat, the older couple came by and in some distinct eastern accent they discussed the relief such a seat brings, with the fragile older lady obvious requiring respite from walking. I offered by moving over to the far, so her partner, easily three time her size, could sit as well. It was instant, that we spoke and his thick accent inquired about my own.

“Serbia”, he said. And, “Australia is a big island if you know what I mean.” This was after I declared my own heritage as German. But that moment of awkward passed quickly as we spoke about other things and his still remaining passion for beekeeping, he had done for many years. Yes, like thick honey it oozed out of him, his passion for all things bees and the claim that Australian Tee Tree honey is more potent than Manuka from New Zealand. This was not the first time I had heard this.

Most interestingly was when he spoke of the time when bees would collect honey for specific trees, such as early in the morning and later in the day. That he loves getting up early and that bees are operating with natural cycles, not that humans tend to do that, not nowadays anyway.

Back in the day, yes, we were happy to have real honey when we got it, and if one season we did not get any, then we did the next. But today, well, it has to be all and everything at all times and at the best price. It is the very opposite to what seasonal eating is all about. And, come to bees, well they have suffered a lot, and continue to do so.

“There is no-one with real pure honey in Melbourne now,” he proclaims.

Between the diversions of Royal Jelly, Propolis and his many years on markets; another German he had met and was rather fond of, and more about bees and trees, he shared his key pearls of wisdom of life with me, sweet as honey, so here they are…

• Get up early, you be amazed what you get to see, witness and learn.
• Life goes by natural cycles, so accept what is, and be happy with that.
• You can’t force nature, it is not a machine.
• Do what you love, and you never work again.
• If you get bitten, it makes you feel alive.
• If you do what you love, you keep doing it after you retire. He does.
• Take time to appreciate the sun, the scent in the air and your company.

With that we looked at each other another time, nodded and shook hands again. “Great to meet you George”, and reaching over to his thinning lady, “Bye Stana, pleasure to meet you both”, I say as I get off the bench.

And, a pleasure it was. Our conversation lingered on in my head for the remainder of my walk, even the day and to this moment that I share it with you. His wisdom shall stick even longer…

Thank you, George, the Bee Keeper and Stana for making my first day of 2018 extra special. Happy New Year.

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