Tuesday, September 30, 2014

When Dreams Go to Work

Usually when I talk about dreams here, they're weird and wacky and have no grounding in reality. I don't tell you about all the dreams I have about work (whether they're about the bar where we serve breakfast and booze—at a chiropractors office—or about how they've changed all the procedures and equipment on me and I can't figure anything out) or the ones that are about the iPod game I've played too obsessively or feature auto dealer websites flying in and out of my head. THOSE support the theory that dreams are our brain discharging and organizing and all that stuff. And they're boring.

But SOMETIMES, they're helpful.

Last week, my e-mail went FUBAR.

(This week my phone did—that reminds me, I need to get a new one, stat! Hold on... Okay, done.)

I've used AOL for like two decades. I have 5 years of e-mails stored in well-broken-down folders. It's safer virus-wise, and it's on my computer. I hate webmail with a passion, and I refuse to use Outlook. But apparently the humongous (like more than a couple hundred a day) rise in stored e-mails with my increase in client work overwhelmed it, because my personal filing cabinet kept getting effed up. I lost 10 days worth of e-mails and had to go through all my old ones to restore what I needed to save. Then it happened again, and I was done.

I did some research and decided to try Mailbird. (After I crashed Thunderbird, which I've used briefly before.) It's working fine. I finally can have all my e-mail addresses loaded into the same place, and I'll get used to the new structure. I'm rebuilding folders as I need them. And it was cool that it synced with my Gmail folders so I didn't even need to make new ones. I especially like how it cheers you when you achieve "Inbox Zero." That's something really important to me. :)

The problem was how AOL categorizes mail. It splits it into "old" and "new." Once you've read an e-mail, it leaves your inbox and goes into the "old" tab. Mine had about 3.5 years' worth. Over 168,000 e-mails. And AOL told Mailbird those are all "new," so it kept pulling them into the application.

Goodbye Inbox Zero.

But did I mention that's important to me? It is. My inbox is supposed to hold only mail I have to address. There's extreme satisfaction in clearing it out after a particularly heavy period of work. Even more in keeping it empty! So the idea of never having Inbox Zero again was not a good one.

I started doing CTRL+A to highlight everything and then archiving it. It took a while for each batch, and after a couple of days, I'd gotten through a month. It was going to take forever to do four years! Plus, it locked up the program a couple of times, and I had to use AOL webmail. *shudder* BUT, I found that the folders I had set up in Mailbird were now available in AOL webmail. It was syncing both ways.

Enter the dream. (I know, I ramble. Sorry.) The other night, mixed with dreams about work and something else kinda weird, I dreamed that I archived all my old mail in AOL webmail, which then synced with Mailbird automatically. I tried it, and...IT WORKED. Archiving in AOL only took a handful of batches, and even though it locked up that mail folder each time, it DID transfer it. So now I have Inbox Zero! AND! Bonus! I can search all my archived mail very easily, which will limit how often I have to go into AOL Desktop for old mail.

Now I have to get paid so I can get Mailbird Pro and get ALL my e-mail addresses in here. (The free version accommodates 3.)

If you've read this far, God love ya. :) I apologize for being boring. Next post will talk about fall TV! :) Stay tuned.

6 comments:

Ava Quinn said...

Good thing you remembered that dream to help out in the real world! lol! I never remember my dreams, so I'd be screwed.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I couldn't close my eyes without going back to the dream! So it wasn't hard to remember. I WISH I couldn't remember my dreams. Some of them are really cool, but they exhaust me. LOL

LBDDiaries said...

I love when that happens - that you wake up with a solution! I have learned to keep a notebook and pencil/pen on my nightstand and to jot down ANYTHING that I think or dream about (not those pizza dreams but the "try this" ones). Some may be garbage but some is brilliant (smile). And I'm like you - I like to get stuff OUT of my mailbox and into folders because it piles up fast with crapola!! I can't wait for Harte and Soul - excited!!

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I have pens--including one with a light--and paper in my nightstand or even on it, and I never work up the energy to write stuff down. LOL

I hope to have Harte and Soul done soon! Thank you! :)

Unknown said...

I really liked your post about When Dreams Go to Work

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Thanks, Mita, and thanks for stopping by!