Old E-Mails

I never like to clean out e-mails and when I do I delete it but never clean out the deleted mail file. Thus I create a long lasting archive that exists until I either blow out the hard drive or change jobs. I do eliminate SPAM and some larger files from the deleted or sent folder but I generally file and forget it. I even had to learn how to set up multiple archives to retain useless information.

Losing my job meant I lost a tremendous archive of old e-mail. That hurt greatly. My last hours were spent culling some special e-mails and sending them home. However, I had e-mails dating back to the last century and lost many a gem.

What do you do with old e-mails? Well, as a long time corporate employee you discover whatever is new is usually old in a new package. Sometimes an old e-mail will shed light on the situation and give you a leg up.

At least that's what we say in public forums.

In private its easy to admit that old e-mail can be used for a variety of reasons.

• You can reacquaint oneself with an old colleague. There's nothing like replying to a decade old e-mail to someone and asking if they still need an answer to the question they asked.
• Send a reminder to a friend of something stupid that they wrote.
• Return any prognostications with a pithy note on their accuracy.

But, more importantly, old e-mails are subtle reminders of friends and friendships. So, I keep them and occasionally respond.

Thankfully, memory is cheap these days.