THINGS THAT BEGET OTHER THINGS
The first rule you teach a kid with a lemonade stand (or a homeless person) is to start out the day with some money already in your cup. Customers (or Samaritans) will see the dollar bills and be more inclined to purchase (or donate). You just look more legitimate this way.
I think the same logic might apply to email. The other day, I went through my inbox and opened all my unread mail, 100% of which was from myself. Only when I was down to the last three, out of about sixty, did I learn that you can sort by unread messages in Gmail. So I had been wasting all this time scrolling through my April inbox, opening things like drafts of emails to myself with no content and only subject lines such as “science?” and “ask molly to birng shoe for paryt.”
This is all to say that since I did this, I have not received very many emails — way fewer than usual. Wondering if potential senders are unconsciously deterred by my zero unread messages.
