Today's motivational challenge: Confronting the 'quicksand' of the inbox

It's Wednesday morning. I have already sat at my desk and updated my website, I have helped my eldest son ensure that he has everything he needs for school before leaving to catch the school bus at 7.50 a.m., I've made breakfast for my youngest after gently waking him from his peaceful slumber at around 7.45 a.m., done some maths homework with him, and discussed things he might like for his birthday party at the weekend, before taking him to school. Oh, and I also grabbed a vanilla latte (another motivational challenge) after doing that.

I was working intensively on a research grant bid on Monday, which I submitted at 9.00 p.m. that evening, and then I spent most of yesterday teaching and meeting with students on campus, whereafter I came home in the rush hour traffic, made a curry for dinner, sat down with my family to eat it, then sat to watch a nature documentary with my youngest son and wife while the eldest attended his weekly boy scouts meet - doing work on the website as I did so - then took myself to bed after spending too much time on the latter. I needed to sleep, and sleep well, but I found myself awake at around 3.00 this morning and wondering why. I probably wasn't awake for long, but I didn't want to be awake at all.

So, having already decided not to set my alarm (I usually get up, feeling fresh, at 5.30 a.m.), and waking with a start to the sound of my wife's alarm clock at 6.15 (she gets up at ~7.00 a.m.; don't ask), and having neglected my inbox since last Friday evening, I am steeling myself for the deluge of admin and bureaucracy that will come from opening it up and reading the various messages that have accumulated over the past couple of days...

On a scale of 0 [exceptionally low] to 10 [exceptionally high] (brief explanation in brackets):

My mood is a 7 (bit anxious)

My energy is a 9 (good balance of exercise, rest and sleep now)

My motivation to start wading through emails: 5

I will start off as I often do, by deleting the junk mail. At least I feel productive that way - and I get the 'reward' of seeing that unread message total going down...