The first few weeks were spent using filters to delete all the junk like Newsletters, Flash Sales, Social Media Notifications, etc.
The remainder was all the personal correspondence. For nearly a year afterwards, I would look through all the correspondence for a given month, and delete or archive based on how meaningful things were.
I came across gems like the following:
- Planning my wedding
- Coming up with baby names
- Celebrating my wife's completion of grad school
- Younger siblings getting their first jobs
- Threads with multiple people for planning a friend's bachelor party, surprise birthday parties, etc.
- Conversations with friends who have since passed away.
This stuff was archived and labeled "Precious".
I highly recommend that everyone go through this process. I plan to do it again once a year from here on out.