Decluttering Your Inbox
Hello, friends! It’s been a while since we’ve spoken. I had to go back to my real job… or maybe I just got lost in my own inbox!
Normally I work in an office. But with summer coming and no cook employed at camp, I stepped into that position. Working as camp cook is drastically different than running the office. I am constantly moving with deadline after deadline looming. There is hardly time for a break let alone a chance to pick up my phone and check texts and emails. At the end of the day when I finally had the chance to check on things I found that I had 40 or 50 emails in my inbox since first thing in the morning (when I woke up to 30 emails). I found myself thinking, “How is this even possible?!? I don’t usually get this many emails, right?”
Well, friends, I do. And it is all my own doing! Every time I make a purchase online I automatically get signed up for marketing emails. I found myself thinking I needed to keep getting those emails because what if there is a sale when I need to make a specific purchase. I don’t want to miss a great deal. But, guys, that’s so what they want you to think! And it’s not okay! I fell into the trap. Did you?
Here are a couple of reasons why it is important to declutter your inbox: 1) If you are like me, you are probably spending at least 10 minutes a day deleting emails that you aren’t evening opening. What a waste of time! I could get a load of laundry going or get my kids a snack in that amount of time. Or I could just relax away from a screen. So much more productive! 2) These emails are designed to make you spend money - and it works at least some of the time or they wouldn’t keep sending them. I know for certain that I have spent money when I wasn’t planning to because of emails! (Not in the budget people!)
If you are tired of having your inbox inundated with marketing campaigns here’s what you need to do: UNSUBSCRIBE! Take the time now to save the time and money later. Every email campaign is required to offer you the option of unsubscribing (Even this email update that you are getting from me! Although if you’re reading this I hope you like me enough to stay.). All you have to do is scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the unsubscribe button. My phone also offers me the option to unsubscribe at the top of the email without even going to the business’s website! Exciting!
You don’t have to unsubscribe from everything. If you truly read certain emails, keep ‘em. It’s up to you to decide what is important. Some companies even offer you the option of receiving their emails once a month. For me, I decided that I want to make deliberate purchases. I’m willing to go directly to a website to see if they are having a sale and to decide if I want to wait to make a purchase until it’s on sale or spend the few extra dollars on full price items. In the end I will most likely save money even if I do make full price purchases because I won’t have spent money on things that I don’t need.
There are a few marketing emails that I have decided to keep or even recently sign up for. Isla has been doing dance the last year, and I am really excited to take her to the San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker this year… So I signed up to receive their newsletter so I know when tickets are available for purchase. I also like to support small creative businesses. So I will keep receiving emails from CarrotTopPaperShop, Modern Mrs Darcy, and The Book Seller, and I will let them talk me into buying things from them. It is their livelihood after all.
Do you have the same problem as me? Do you find that there are other reasons besides time and money that you choose not to receive marketing emails? What emails do you choose to allow in your inbox?
I hope this encourages you to take the initiative toward a simpler life. Hugs and free time!