Degunking Your Email, Spam, and Viruses

Those who know me recognize my penchant for an organized system for everything including the house, computer, and cubicle. Over the years, I’ve adapted various strategies for keeping my email box clean. Too often, I’ve had on occasions when I saw others’ email boxes and just squirmed at the clutter.
One person had a long list of folders. Another person had emails in the Sent and Deleted folders going back at least a year. My own husband is an email pack rat. I play armchair quarterback and nag him about the emails from me that he should’ve deleted once they were no longer relevant.
The marketing folks behind the book are creative geniuses. They sent a plastic drinking cup with SPAM on it, a can of spam (I donated it to a food drive—this is good spam, right?), and a little truck (Hot Wheels / Matchbox style) with SPAM on the sides of it. That went to the middle child, the Hot Wheels lovers.
Moving on to reviewing the book. Before reaching the title page inside the book, the first few pages quickly cover the 12-step degunking program with a list followed by 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and three-hour to half-day steps for degunking email and viruses with time limitations. This section finishes off with top 20 tasks for clearing the email cobwebs.
If you’re overwhelmed at the thought of following a 12-step program and spending more than a day going through each step, the time limitations section should ease your mind. It’s a good way to start, baby steps. Don’t stop there, however. Make it part of a long-term program and pick up some of the habits it covers.
I’m amazed at how many of the tips I already do but it should be no surprise as obsessed with organization as I am. Though I have implemented many of the suggestions, the book provides value because it offers a process for cleaning up as well as tips I hadn’t considered. It took me years to come up with many of the tips covered. So don’t wait years to figure it out yourself when you can get it right now with one resource, this book.
Sure, it covers the usual, “have a firewall running” and “ensure your anti-virus program is running and up to date.” However, you’d be surprised how many people don’t have either in place. This book would be incomplete without these recommendations.
Though a majority use Outlook or Outlook Express for managing email, Duntemann discusses other clients including The Bat!, Thunderbird, Pegasus, and Eudora. Like many things in life, everyone has different needs when it comes to email. The author discusses four email profiles and mentions them throughout the book so whichever you are, follow the advice for that profile.
Like the other books in Paraglyph’s Degunking series, this one is easy to read and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of various tools. Anyone who gets the book and follows its steps will experience a leaner, cleaner email box and possibly a faster-running computer. Most users of all levels should benefit from this book. The only group that might not invest in it are those who know everything inside out about spam, viruses, malware, and adware and how to deal with them.
Title: Degunking Email, Spam, and Viruses
Author: Jeff Duntemann
Publisher: Paraglyph Publishing
ISBN: 193211193X
Date: October 2004
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Cover Price: USD: $16.99
CDN: 26.59
UK: 12.59