Tomorrow (December 1st, 2023) is the day google is set to start deleting gmail accounts and associated contents (photos, docs, etc.) that have been inactive for two years or more.

These kinds of onerous admin tasks to safekeep data or keep things running with deadlines are one of the biggest headaches and time/soul-sucking distractions of indie webmastery. They're also the kinds of things that *even if you were able to pay* to employ an assistant or team of people ... could you really trust them with this?

All that's required to prevent deletion is to log in to your account(s). But trying to remember all of them and find their passwords is a nail-biting headache. Although we've done a pretty good job of managing our logins, there are a few I'm unsure of and some others I've forgotten. It nags at the brain and causes fear. Mostly unwarranted, but it also erodes confidence: yet another opportunity to note your own failures, and things you started and didn't finish.

Why bother? Well ... a lot of email accounts get started to register social media profiles on platforms that don't allow you to register multiple accounts using the same names and/or email addresses: youtube and twitter are big ones. You really have to snatch those @s before someone squats on them and holds them hostage. Losing access to your email addresses used for account recovery means losing your @s.

Anyway ... I'm entering the black hole now mere hours before the clock rolls over into tomorrow. Squandering more precious moments trying to salvage bits and pieces of things instead of making or doing something new.

If you hate doing these kinds of tasks, it's best to either a) be VERY ORGANIZED and use password managers with all logins tagged and categorized to easily distinguish between, for example, an actual email account versus a hundred logins registered with that email address, or b) be VERY FRUGAL AND MINIMAL with how many projects and identities you start. In other words, do not undertake a project of creating one hundred and one websites.

Since it is too late for me to pick option b (not to mention totally unrealistic given my compulsive personality), I'm going to keep working on tightening up my option a game.

Which also means updating my google analytics codes, I guess. Too late but not really too late? We'll find out.

Unsurprisingly, I'm getting spinning wheels trying to log in. Guessing even google is able to get totally overwhelmed by tons of other people doing the same thing I am trying to do. Which reminds me of another huge rule: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO SALVAGE DATA WHEN GIVEN A DEADLINE.

Oy ... the number of times I've fallen victim to my own procrastination combined with overwhelmed servers.