Dear Inbox by Gmail,
I miss you.
A coworker gleefully introduced you to me, in awe that I hadn’t met you yet. I was suspicious and weary of replacing my daily system accompanied by quirks I had figured out with one of unknown quirks. But I was drawn to you. You were bright and bold, making it super clear to see which emails I had seen and which I had missed.
You brought a slow calm to my inbox by visually displaying a little breathing room. Each email felt more like a small envelope to open rather than an item to cross off the checklist. It was inviting and soothing.
I resisted, at first, your strong will to categorize everything into four labels. After six or seven (or so) years of labels migrating from compacted, dense folders to an overstretched accordion of flatness, my attempts to organize my own emails were in a sad disarray. I grew to enjoy the auto sorting and the auto grouping. Here is a bundle of envelopes related to newsletters. Here is another bundle related to purchases. I particularly liked keeping track of my shipping bundle, marking each email as complete once its physical counterpart was received.
Separating my emails by big monthly headings, while also contributing to my calm, began to give me a flavor for each month. November and December were littered with coupons. January was a slow welcome and time for reflection. February was full of red and pink emails with heart shaped magnets. March, your last month, was me admiring how much I had grown used to your presence in my daily life.
My inbox is a flood that you helped me sort out. I will miss opening your small digital envelopes.
Rest In Peace, Inbox by Gmail.