respond to emails and messages promptly

I wrote messages on hi5 today! I still probably need to do more, but I am proud that I set aside time to do this… I should do this every Thursday after class. I will make a list here of who I still need to write hand-written letters to:

- Monk father and Lucky
- Thai host families (maybe…)
- Post Office Guy in Thailand
- Friends who gave me their address in Thailand
- Exchange Friends: Monica, Diana, and Yuki deffinately… maybe others if I have their addresses…

In Thailand I actually wrote letters all the time because I had access to the post office easily… I sent letters to my family often, weekly. I sent letters to friends every once in a while, and I set a letter to Dan Radcliffe even… written on post-it notes… I’ve probably said this before, but oh well… :)

Though it is difficult to keep up with the sheer volume and Thai…ness… of all my Hi-Five messages and such, when I am able to use the library at my school I carve carefully worded messages to my friends… As I said before, when the semester starts, it will be easier. But as far as e-mails and facebook messages, I’ve been on top of my game! Now I need to get on those hand-written letters. When I lived in Thailand I used to write hand-written letters pretty much everyday, and if not everyday, then every week. But because here there is not public transportation (not REALLY… not transportation that comes on time or goes many places…I’d have to walk about 5-10 miles just to catch the bus…) it is difficult for me to mail anything and while I could ask my mother for a ride, I liked being able to handle everything myself and I sometimes feel guilty when I am spending so much on postage with someone there with me… I guess I’m kind of a secretive and somewhat private person in this regard. I don’t like the idea that anyone knows I’m mailing a letter. That sounds terrible, I know. But I just like being able to do it all myself and not have anyone else get involved. I realise that in many aspects of my life, I keep things to myself, or try to hide my actions… even if they are nice actions, I like to do things without someone looking over my shoulder….

Today I wrote to my Thai friends on hi-5. It takes me much longer to write letters in Thai then it does for me to write in English and thus I always put it off. But today I just sat down for about an hour after I finished my PowerPoint presentation and just wrote to most of the people I had to write too… I say most because I think that there were a few that I missed. Now I need to hand write some letters…. That task is more difficult because those letters will be expensive to send.

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^{This is entry 1 of 3 this week.
Illustration credit: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2009/02/23/090223sh_shouts_mccall + http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/the-new-yorker.html}

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^{This is entry 2 of 3 this week.
Illustration credit: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrycurve8900/curve_photos.jsp}

I have a general problem with avoidance/procrastination, and this is only one of the specific issues I’ve had. It’s one of the worst, too. Not responding to emails and voicemail messages has caused trouble for me on countless occasions. It’s alienated so many of the people that have come into my life, even good friends.

Part of the problem is that I hate talking on the phone. It scares me to have to speak extemporaneously to people without being able to see their reactions, so often, I don’t answer. As a result, messages pile up, I avoid listening to them (I guess that’s because the next step would be actually calling people back), people get annoyed and mystified wondering why I haven’t responded—and my fears about phone communication become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Email, on the other hand, is a form of communication I like, but for some reason I get stuck in the same cycle of avoidance with it. When I was younger, I even changed email addresses a few times just because I couldn’t face opening up up my inbox and seeing all the unanswered messages.

I don’t abandon my email completely anymore, but I still go through phases of avoiding it. In fact, I’m doing that right now, and it’s worrying me a lot because I’m pretty sure the professors I work with have tried to contact me. I could easily lose my job for being unreachable like this.

I really want to create a new habit, starting tomorrow morning. I’m going to check my email no matter how much it scares me, and if I find out that the professors have had enough of my distantness and don’t want me to work for them anymore, so be it—I know that’s the fate I’ve earned. I’ll take it as a lesson learned and be proud of myself for facing the consequences like a woman… and from then on, here’s what I’m going to do:

-Check my email once a day
-Respond to all emails within 48 hours
-Check my voicemail messages at least once a day
-Return all calls within 24 hours
-Check my text messages at least once a day
-Respond to all texts immediately

I’ll make exceptions to this rule only when on vacation.

I know I’m going to feel a hundred times better when I finally take responsibility and do this right—all that worrying and guilt will be gone. If I can do it consistently for three months I’ll consider a new habit formed (and this goal achieved!).

If I can make it a habit to respond to emails within 2 days for the next month, I’ll consider this a goal completed.

Most of the times I receive an email, I read it and then I leave to respond later… but sometimes I forget and it takes me like three days (or more) to sit and respond…

I definetley have to change that.

yes! its done! three weeks in a row, so this is now classed as habit.

I have to admit, it started getting harder there in the end, but I have made it.

And i also have to admit there are people I need to email, however those arn’t classed as responding. I just hope I keep this up.

yay! up to date again!
one more week and this is considered done!