Email Hack: Make Your Email Motivate You

Written by Dave Navarro on May 10, 2007

Short post today, but useful if you put it into practice.

It’s pretty likely your inbox/folders/(labels?) are hiding some pretty great emails in there …

• Emails where people have gushed about how you’ve helped them/the great job you did/how much they value you
• Emails telling a story that really inspires you or motivates you to take action
• Emails chock-full-o’ wins and victories (awards won, major sales, your first ‘You’ve got cash!’ from paypal

Those emails are probably just buried and doing you no good at the moment, buried under 100 urgencies that threaten to dominate your thinking.

So why not apply a label to them (or put them in a folder, if you don’t have labels) like “MOTIVATION”, or “INSPIRATION”, or “KICK-ME-IN-THE-ASS” so that when you need a boost, you can jump right to them and spend 5 minutes reminding yourself why you rock (and you should know how important that is by now).

Don’t be cynical and dismiss this - you know how insanely powerful those emails made you feel in the past. Don’t leave that emotional money on the table. Spend 5 minutes slappin’ some labels, or re-foldering, and the next time you feel like it would be a good idea to wallow in feeling less than badass, you know just where to go.

Until next time, remember: It’s your life, so take total control of it!

- Dave Navarro

(PS - Don’t forget to leave a comment with your take on this, and pass the word to those who rock with you)