Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

Relax, be kind to yourself.

The finance analogy isn’t right, because debt is something you have to pay and these things, or at least most of them, don’t require you to do anything.

If you have too many emails to get through, yes, unsubscribe ruthlessly.

If your storage costs too much, yes, delete ruthlessly.

Now, accept that you will never make use of everything you’ve found. That doesn’t matter. That’s also true of libraries and the world in general.

So don’t worry about getting through them. You cannot.

Just remove anything that causes problems (incoming streams, expensive storage), and then enjoy your curated things at whatever pace you feel like.

You can’t finish it, ever. But that doesn’t mean it is a problem you need to solve. It means it’s a selection to taste from.

This is digital version of hoarding!

I struggle with it too - I think a better tagging system would solve it for me but I’ve accepted I’ll never read all the books in my wishlist or even some I bought years ago and yet to read them.

I can only answer for email, but mail rules are you friends. I have many rules that label, categorize, archive, delete, and mark things as important. Almost all automated emails (receipts, reminders, alerts, etc) skip my inbox entirely, so I only have to actually think about things people send to me directly. Everything else gets my attention either in scheduled slots (eg before a stand up, or at 10am, in the case of things like Gitlab or JIRA emails) or just when I've got some time (newsletters).

I'm not an organized person so I get a computer to do it for me.

Just a singular data point from my side, but is there a chance you may have AD(H)D or O(C)D? I likely have ADHD myself (official dx pending), and I also have a very similar "I'm interested in everything!" feeling. My inbox has ~4k mails, and I likely have 2k tabs open across different devices/browsers/OSes.

If this is the case, I'd recommend taking a long, hard look at the things you want, and what you'll regret if you don't do. I love the idea of an FPGA but I won't regret not knowing how to code for one. Though ironically I can hardly say much to you in my current situation without coming off as hypocritical.

this was great. i now have 5 more tabs open. thx