Dear Joy · No. 2 ·
Living with new technology, one letter at a time.
My inbox makes my chest tight. Can a computer help?
Dear Joy,
I have 3,412 unread emails. Every time I open my inbox my chest goes tight and I close it again. Is there a way to use AI for this, or am I just doomed?
Joy answers
Boise, you are so far from doomed. You are extremely normal. A lot of us have a number like that hiding in our pocket.
Let’s be gentle and practical. That tight chest is your body saying this is too much at once, so the first job is to make it less. Most of those 3,412 are newsletters, receipts and promotions. Search for the senders you never read, select them all, and archive. Archived isn’t deleted. If you ever need something, search will find it. Many people watch the number drop by thousands in ten minutes.
What’s left is the real stuff, and that’s where a chat tool earns its keep. For the email you’ve been dreading, paste it in (leaving out anything private), say in one sentence what you want to reply, and ask for two short versions. Pick one, make it sound like you, hit send. The hardest part was never the typing. It was the starting.
And then, a three-minute reset: breathe in for four, out for six. You did a brave thing today.
Feel the Joy, baby.
Joy
Shrink the pile first
Search for newsletters and promotions, select all, archive. Archived isn’t deleted. You can find anything later.
Let it draft the hard ones
For the emails you’ve been avoiding, describe what you need to say and let a chat tool write the first version.
Clip and try this
Copy it into the chat app you already use.
Help me reply to this email. Here’s what it says: [paste]. Here’s what I want to say: [one sentence]. Keep it under 100 words, kind and clear, and give me two versions.
Dear Joy is written by The Joy Daily’s editors. It’s general wellness and education, never medical, legal or financial advice.