Good morning, I’m back and it’s Thursday.
One of the challenges of unplugging for just a single day is deciding what to do about the whole email management thing.
Twenty-four hours (well, 25, technically, to observe the entire Yom Kippur holiday from sundown to sundown) seems like too short a time period to set an away message. And the away message doesn’t really stop emails from coming in, but rather informs people of your not-available status.
Then you plug back in and…WOAH. Email onslaught.
I don’t know about you, but I receive hundreds of emails daily. Some of them are alerts that I’ve set, and so I have no one to blame but myself. Others are chains of communication on which I am – for some reason that is not always clear to me – cc’ed or bcc’ed.
And then you have you unsolicited pitches and appeals, your work-related meeting inquiries, your personal “let’s do lunch” touch bases, and on and on and on.
Things have only grown worse since the onset of the pandemic, when we truly shifted into operating in the virtual space and started to prefer online communication even to a phone conversation.
That, by the way, I reserve for truly important discussions – both personal and professional. If we are trading words into one another’s ears – or, better yet, face-to-face – know that I consider you a most important person in my life for one reason or another.
True confession: I have never known inbox zero. Not once. Not since the day I signed on and created my very first Yahoo account, which, for the record, I still have. Now it’s so old it’s vintage and maybe even cool again? A girl can dream.
Inbox zero, in case you haven’t heard, is an email management strategy, the goal of which is to free your inbox – on a consistent basis – of unopened messages. This approach seems so simple, but it actually is very difficult to achieve, and it has an inventor – a productivity expert named Melvin Mann.
This seems as good a time as any to let you in on a not-so-secret fact – since achieving wild fame for his concept, Mann has admitted that his own inbox is, in fact, cluttered. He insists we’re going about implementing his idea all wrong.
So, in case you were feeling inadequate and an abject failure at life, just keep that little tidbit in mind.
The truth is that the inbox zero method is not necessarily about getting to ZERO emails awaiting your attention. Rather it’s about trying to manage and minimize how much email is taking up your mental space, leaving you a slave to answering useless missives with no time to actually do anything productive, like, you know, work or have a life.
If you really want to try this out, here are five steps to inbox zero, though be aware that there are probably a million of these lists floating around the interwebs:
- Unsubscribe or archive nonessential emails
- Reply within 24 hours
- Use the two-minute rule for incoming emails
- Write better emails
- Set up an email schedule and stick with it
It turns out that I do a fair number of these things already, and my inbox had, at last count (before the Yom Kippur holiday) 3,641 emails and counting. So, clearly I’m doing it all wrong.
Happy Inbox Zero Day, by the way. You’re welcome.
It’s going to be beautiful out, with temperatures in the mid-70s and sunny skies.
Apparently, Mother Nature isn’t quite ready to commit to the cooler temperatures yet, and I’m here for it. (The weekend, though, is an entirely different matter, but let’s leave that for another day).
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden was in Florida to see destruction caused by Hurricane Ian, once again putting a spotlight on his icy relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis, the combative GOP leader posed to potentially challenge the Democrat for the presidency in 2024.
Biden, standing side by side with DeSantis, promised the federal government would be there for the state as it rebuilds from Hurricane Ian and steels itself against future storms.
Biden did make a pointed comment about climate change’s impact on America that drew a contrast with DeSantis, who has previously avoided the term and dismissed such concerns as “leftwing stuff”.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its oil-exporting allies announced a 2 million barrel per day cut in oil production, bucking months of pressure from Washington to increase production and potentially spiking gas prices again.
Shortly after the announcement, Biden told reporters at the White House he thought the cut was “unnecessary,” although he said he had yet to see all the details.
The White House said in a statement that the Biden administration would “deliver another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the market next month, continuing the historic releases the President ordered in March.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan and top economic adviser Brian Deese issued a statement that took issue with the decision, citing ongoing concerns about the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The largest U.S. oil trade groups said that they have “significant concerns” that the Biden administration is considering limiting fuel exports to lower consumer prices and urged top officials to take the option off the table.
As US gas prices tick higher, the White House has reportedly asked the Energy Department to look into whether a ban on exports of gasoline would pull down costs at the pump for American drivers.
More pain at the pump would be a major blow to Democrats weeks from the midterm elections and bring Biden’s boasts about getting the price per gallon down from record highs in June back to haunt him.
A federal appeals court agreed to fast-track an appeal by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the appointment of a special master to review thousands of pages of government records seized this summer from former President Trump’s Florida home.
Trump’s latest appeal to the nine Supreme Court justices in the Mar-a-Lago documents furor – another apparent delaying tactic – may be a long shot and could even backfire.
Among the items seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago were clemency requests, health care documents, IRS forms and paperwork that appears to be related to the 2020 election, according to a Justice Department list made public this week.
Trump complained bitterly about the investigations he’s facing in a speech yesterday, accusing his successor, Biden, of “destroying the rule of law” and neglecting deeper problems the nation confronts.
Trump leaders of top GOP political organizations leapt to the defense of Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, after a bombshell report accused the anti-abortion Republican of allegedly paying for a woman’s abortion years earlier.
The woman who told The Daily Beast on Monday that Walker had paid for her abortion in 2009 told the outlet yesterday that she was the mother of one of his children, undercutting his defense that he did not know her identity.
Trump is fighting to get his media company off the ground and into public markets, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk keeps getting in his way with his effort to buy Twitter.
In the weeks before Musk declared that his bid to own Twitter was back on the table, his representatives spoke with the company several times about redoing the deal at a lower price, four people familiar with the discussions said.
Experts are bracing for renewed discussions of civil war, which jumped after the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, as the Nov. 8 midterm elections approach and political talk grows more urgent and heated.
Biden and top White House officials announced new guidelines and grants to protect abortion and contraception rights, and said women’s rights have already been curtailed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade 100 days ago.
The Biden administration is offering the opportunity to use Medicaid to help cover costs for people who cross state borders for abortions. States aren’t so sure they want to take it.
A federal appeals court said the DACA policy violates U.S. immigration law, dealing a blow to an Obama-era program that provides deportation protection and work permits to nearly 600,000 immigrant “Dreamers” who lack legal status.
The decision from a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with Texas and other conservative states that sued in 2018 but maintained the status quo for the DACA program.
Despite its conclusion, the appeals court did not order the Biden administration to shut down DACA completely or stop processing renewal applications, deciding to leave in place an order from a lower court that left the policy intact for current beneficiaries.
Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said after the ruling that “DACA recipients can breathe a sigh of relief, but the urgency remains to pass a permanent solution that brings stability to the lives of DACA recipients.”
The White House announced Biden would visit IBM’s campus in Poughkeepsie today to “deliver remarks on creating jobs in the Hudson Valley, lowering costs, and ensuring the future is made in America.”
Biden will attend a jobs event hosted by IBM Corp. and a pair of fundraisers ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Biden will also attend a reception with the Democratic National Committee in Red Bank, N.J.
Former Rep. Max Rose, a Staten Island Democrat who is attempting a comeback bid next month in NY-11, said neither Biden nor Trump should run for president in 2024.
China has banned residents from leaving Xinjiang over a Covid-19 outbreak – just weeks after the far-western region began relaxing restrictions from a stringent extended lockdown, fueling frustration among those scarred by food shortages and plunging incomes.
A New York Times video investigation reveals new details about the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, a national hero who faced censorship after sounding an early alarm on Covid-19.
New research suggests Covid pandemic stress may have changed Americans’ personalities, and not for the better.
A new analysis suggests that if more people in the United States get their booster by the end of the year, about 90,000 Covid-19 deaths could be prevented this fall and winter.
Democratic lawmakers in Congress are urging the Biden administration to further ease cross-border travel restrictions after Canada lifted travel regulations earlier this week.
A judge reinstated a Staten Island firefighter who lost his job over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to a decision that could help other smoke eaters.
The state police official who failed to discipline a trooper for dating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daughter is being probed by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office over claims that he protected a former HR official with whom he was allegedly having an affair.
Hochul confirmed her counsel’s office is looking into myriad allegations that have been swirling around State Police Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen for several weeks, including in posts made on websites reserved for current and former agency members.
Hochul took a $2,500 chopper ride from Albany to Queens last June to visit a BP gas station on Astoria Boulevard for a brief photo op, according to newly released records detailing the governor’s jet-setting ways.
A law signed by Hochul is meant to boost drinking water safety and quality in New York.
Health officials in New York will issue regulations for 23 chemicals deemed “emerging contaminants” in drinking water as the state seeks to strengthen its drinking water standards.
A coalition of labor unions and more than two dozen advocacy organizations urged Hochul to fully restore oversight powers of the state comptroller’s office, a lack of which have been blamed for massive pay-to-play scandals in state government.
More than two dozen churches and a socially conservative organization this week filed a federal lawsuit challenging New York’s restrictions on guns in sensitive areas.
More than 100 marijuana dispensaries, run out of gas stations and wooden shacks, have opened on Native land while New York State awaits its first official retail licenses.
Hochul said a “federal solution” is needed to address an influx of migrants being bused in and overwhelming the state.
Hochul is poised to send in the National Guard to help run the controversial tent city for migrants planned by New York City Mayor Eric Adams that has now been moved from the Bronx to Randalls Island.
Several City Council members pushed back on Adams’ plan to house migrants in tents on Randalls Island and instead offered an alternate solution — currently shuttered Manhattan hotels.
The statement, signed by Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, blasted the new location as likely inhospitable in the wintertime due to fierce winds and vulnerable to potential flooding during a hurricane.
“The City Council is offering solutions to what we see as environmental risks,” Speaker Adams said. “Both locations…there is no perfect situation, but these are certainly not good spaces for anyone to come into due to flood risks.”
Michael Goodwin says Adams’s “rash” decision to take in as many as 75,000 foreign migrants “was an unforced error that threatens to dominate his mayoralty and demote combating crime to a second-tier consideration.”
“We haven’t gotten a call from them deciding to move the site,” Assembly Member Karines Reyes said . “Maybe they figured you know it’s out of the Bronx, we don’t have to call the Bronx delegation.”
A group of New York City business and civic leaders is backing an initiative to create a handful of important, realistic policy goals for Adams, filling what they believe is a critical hole in his administration’s vision for the city.
Adams joined MSG Network during halftime of the New York Knicks’ preseason opener against the Detroit Pistons, sandwiching an interview with ideas of grandeur for the 2022-23 team.
New York City has drastically reduced the number of criminal cases it pursues over serious fire safety violations, prompting worries about the rigor of its fire prevention strategy just months after a devastating fire killed 17 people in a Bronx high rise.
A former city carpenters union leader cut himself a sweet, jail-free deal by cooperating with the feds to bring down a bribery scam that inflated the union’s ranks and lined his pockets.
A funeral was held yesterday for slain FDNY EMS Alison Russo-Elling, who was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.
“She would always put others’ lives before hers,” said one of her co-workers, Deputy Chief Gregg Brady. Her colleagues all called her Allie, he said, and she called them “the kids.”
A group of building owners pushing for the rezoning of a Bronx neighborhood have a history of legal and financial issues, as the fate of the project remains up in the air ahead of a key City Council vote this week.
A New York court ruled in favor of the outdoor dining structures lining Big Apple streets, dismissing a lawsuit and paving the way for the pandemic-era fixtures to become a permanent part of city life.
Embattled actor Kevin Spacey is set to face his first sexual abuse trial in Manhattan federal court today as a jury will be selected to weigh the claims against the star brought by Broadway actor Anthony Rapp.
New York City announced a new stage in the fight against the spread of monkeypox: Expanded eligibility and the adoption of a pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, prevention model.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that he’s taken his effort to sink New York’s congestion pricing plan all the way to Biden’s ear.
Hochul and state legislators were blasted this week by one of their own — fellow Democrat David Soares — who issued a blistering statement over bail reform following two fatal shootings in Albany where he serves as county district attorney.
Democrats and voting-rights advocates are blasting a lawsuit filed by state Republicans and their allies that could upend how absentee ballots are processed in New York.
Just days after the The Farm Laborers Wage Board decided to change the overtime threshold for farm workers from 60 to 40 hours, lawmakers and stakeholders are asking the Governor to suspend this order.
Four of Albany’s most well-known real estate brokers are leading a new competition-based reality show.
Micron Technology’s selection of the Syracuse suburbs for a new $100 billion semiconductor factory that could create 50,000 jobs, likely cements Albany Nanotech as the choice for a new billion-dollar national chip research lab.
The Sheridan Avenue drop-in homeless shelter where a man allegedly used two swords to assault a shelter employee in August will re-open Monday with enhanced security measures in place.
City of Schenectady police have stepped up patrols around the Union College campus as they continue to investigate two reported robberies and an attempted robbery of two college students and an employee last week.
Jackie Falotico, a seasoned county government administrator, will soon take over as the new Schenectady County finance commissioner.
Fake heiress Anna “Delvey” Sorokin won her release from immigration jail, a judge ruled, but forbade her from using social media.
Aaron Judge hit his recording-breaking 62nd home run of the season.
The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” last year, has reached a settlement in its wrongful-death lawsuit against producers, including Baldwin, lawyers for the parties said.
