For the tens of folks reading this you may have noticed that I started off July full of vim and vigor and excited about my July Challenge, which I have not updated since the 2nd. That’s not to say I haven’t been making an effort in the areas that I outlined. I have–not as much as I might, but not as little as I feared. I’ve gotten quite a bit of writing done. I’ve moved more, if not as much as I’d hoped. And I’ve made a non-zero number of social media posts.

One area where I have made a particular stride (I hesitate to say strides plural) is that of conquering Avoidance Mountain. At least, one little peak of Avoidance Mountain. To belabor the metaphor even further, I’ve attained Base Camp on Avoidance Mountain.

Booyah. I have no unread messages.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve gone through about six years of email and identified receipts, important documents, and a whole pile of shame. I’ve declared amnesty on a lot of this–a key component of Inbox Zero, if you’re familiar with that. I’ve had to admit that too much time has passed to respond to some of these. I can only mark them read, hang my head in shame, and resolve to do better in the future.

This feels like a very silly thing to be excited about, but I am. My unread count has been hovering in the low thousands for a while now, and it’s been an enduring source of stress, even as I am aware (and found out) that 95% of the emails I purged were come-ons from startups that don’t exist anymore or notices that my credit card bill was due/paid/coming up.

So, onward!