Road To Financial Recovery

DancingInTheRain

Great progress - on savings & DD's room - pleased she had a good first day at high school.

FootyFanDan

Thank you @DancingInTheRain.

I've made yet more progress into sorting the room of doom known as my daughters room! 🤣. I have spent a fair few hours today building flat pack furniture and whilst there seems still so much to do I can slowly start seeing it shape up. Tomorrow will be building the wardrobe and then computer / dressing table, if it arrives (should have been today and note I need to claim the next day delivery fee - only a fiver but still.) Although it was probably a blessing it didn't arrive today tbh.

I've also cancelled my YNAB subscription, I am just not really feeling the benefits of tbh now that my spreadsheet is all properly done and up to date. I pay monthly for it so I have now cancelled this. I have also done a bit of thinking around what we do with the spare funds we have and I think whilst yes it is great just saving it, I want to start making the house more clutter free and making the most of the space we have so there will be a few purchases over the next few months in hopes that we can free up space in our kitchen. We knew it was tiny and was a sacrifice we were happy to make but in practice it is just so cluttered.

I also managed to get another work call today too. Can tell I am closer to getting back.

FootyFanDan

Day three of sorting out the daughters room has been completed. All the new furniture is finally up and now taking shape. We now just need to do the tidy up and it should all be ready by end of the weekend. I am really happy that we've made progress and got it done. I took my annual leave to ensure I could do it so this has been successful.

This weekend will be relatively chill, enjoying my last few days off before returning back to the office on Monday. This will now be a long stretch until my next batch of leave in December. It has been really good to take some time out and refresh, it will be strange going back. I am not looking forward to my inbox haha

Dakota_Rose

Commiserations on the inbox 😂- I had a peek at mine yesterday and it’s a day’s worth of work just to read them all, let alone prioritise and respond to.

Really nice post to read. I love going back to work knowing we’ve achieved a home improvement - I find it quite motivating. Your daughter will be pleased too!

daisy_1571

When I went back I used to start in date order but over time when I spent days slogging through them I tried a different way. I decided to sort by sender, delete anything that was regarding a time frame thats already passed ie the window cleaners are coming on.., fire alarm scheduled for.. etc. Then a quick check as depending on who it was from there could well be info only emails that you will recognise. Then back to sorted by date and i'd start at the newest cos previously I'd be spending time sorting an answer only to find that the initiator had emailed someone else when they got my ooo and it has already been answered. Huge waste of time.

If you find an email chain, sort by the email subject line and delete out all the ones that are included in the newest. That can sometimes get rid of 10 or more emails. (Maybe more or less depending on your workplace and the kind of email chains you are involved in.)

If you set up temp folders 'temp hol Aug 26 urgent' 'temp hol Aug 26 non urgent', 'temp hol Aug 26 Henderson project' etc as appropriate, as you read each email, dont start actioning it, just sweep it into the relevant temp folder and put it back to unread. Your in box will get cleared fairly quickly into the relevant temp folders then you can start working through them in your urgency order. As you deal with each one in a particular temp folder, delete the folder to keep your emails tidy.

Somehow there's something about emails that make it seem as if everything is urgent. Back in the day when we had paper, each day's mail was in a daily folder. Even if you came back after a fortnight off to a stack of 10 daily folders 2 inches high it was quicker and easier to work through, sorting, discarding and filing as you go. Emails with their multiple replies and false sense of urgency are harder to keep on top of but sorting them out your immediate in box is one way of feeling on top of it. Instead of 500 emails all looking at you, you might get it down to 15 that actually need you to do something about and hopefully severalof them are quickly dealt with.

Either way, please remind yourself that if you have to work through them all that will take time and you have to give yourself that time and not start dashing off in all directions trying to answer the first 3 you open and get nothing else done and end the day feeling worse than you did before you had your holiday as there are still 400 unopened emails that you have no idea whats in tgem.

No idea if that helps, much will depend on the type of job you do and the type of emails you deal with. In some organisations 20 emails would be a lot, in others going back to 1000 emails wouldn't be unknown.

Dxxx

Sun_Addict

I’ve got the delights of a full inbox to look forward to on Monday 😐 It doesn’t help that I’m a PA for 3 directors so get copied in to their invites and emails and have to read them in case there’s something I need to action.

You’ve achieved a lot while you’ve been off so hope you get some time to chill before it’s back to the grindstone.

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126249#Comment_82126249

I had half considered doing a bit of emails tomorrow but I will see how I feel. I am glad to have achieved getting the bedroom sorted for her. There is still bits to do and that will take a bit to go through but the major stuff is done. Also changed our room around as well which is another ticked off. It has given me the bug to start actually improving this place. We don't envisage it been our forever home but I suspect it is going to be a while (if at all) that we are in a place to own our own house.

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126378#Comment_82126378

I am hopeful that if I can sort by sender I will get rid of a large amount. Emails really are the pain for me as everyone just expects instant answers. On my last leave a person emailed 5 times asking why I hadn't replied even though it clearly stated on my out of office I would be uncontactable for the duration of my leave. I don't envy that inbox of yours at all.

FootyFanDan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82126330#Comment_82126330

You're totally right, something about email just annoys me. I don't know if it is just me or not but everyone seems to want immediate action but maybe that is just in my head. I figure if something is genuinely urgent then they would ring. I like the methods you describe. I think if I go by sender I know I will be auto copied into stuff that isn't relevant anymore and I can then look at what is urgent or needs action. I won't be rushing through replying though. Last time I had this amount of time of it was around 400 emails I went back to and the danger is just heading into trying to respond and fix all of them as quickly as possible. I'm determined to not start of work stressing about stuff.

daisy_1571

Thats a great mindset - print an affirmation for yourself and blu tack it somewhere you see it every day, all day as its very easy to get caught up again. Very easy but not healthy. Keep reminding yourself if you were no longer here those above you would advertise your job without a second thought - do this for you and your family and your future plans, not for them (in a healthy way not a vindictive way i mean 😁)

Dxx