Cut Clutter From Your Email This Week
Simple tip for this Monday:
- You’ve got crap in your Inbox on a regular basis that you will never, ever read. Ever.
- It’s piling up.
- It must pile up no more.
Get honest with yourself - if you’re receiving information that you’re either not reading or not acting upon, it is essentially worthless. Actually, it’s a liability because it is cluttering your inbox and causing you stress.
- If you haven’t opened a newsletter you’re subscribed to for the last few issues, unsubscribe.
- If you don’t act on the good advice contained in a news letter, unsubscribe.
- If you receive newsletters you don’t want to unsubscribe from because you really think you’ll read it in the future, set up a rule/filter that will archive it in a “to read” folder so that it never clutters your inbox again.
Your time is too valuable to waste it managing information that shouldn’t have to be managed manually.
Get the crap out of your inbox. If you get a lot, phase it out a little at a time.
You’ll thank yourself for it, and you won’t know what to do with all the room it frees up in your inbox. And that’s a great place to be.
Keep on rocking (and subscribing),
Dave
Dave, been meaning to thank you for such great tips since recently signing up for your RSS feed.
Inspired by the lovely Darren Rowse this morning, I have called over to let you know how much your time, advice and generosity in sharing it are really appreciated … thank you!
Have a great week!
:o)
Dianne -
Thanks for the kind words. Glad you’re liking the blog!
Alright, I have a question.
What do you do when you go to click “unsubscribe” and think, “But what if I miss THE ONE EMAIL that might’ve been the singlemost important email of my life?”
It’s like bad feeds. I don’t unsubscribe sometimes because I’m afraid of missing that BIG THING everyone - everyone else - talks about. If it ever comes.
James -
You know what? You won’t miss it. Because you’ll be more focused on *doing* things when you have less email clutter.
The only important emails? The ones you actually take action on. You don’t need every list, every feed … you just need to take action on what comes your way. But you can’t act on everything, so you have to limit your focus.
If you narrow your focus, and take constant action, you won’t regret missing the other emails. I’ve had to unsub from perfectly good newsletters simply because I can’t spread my focus too thin.
I have an easy solution:
1) Set up a filter in Gmail that auto archives certain emails to a newsletters folder, skipping the inbox entirely.
2) Take every email newsletter you’re subscribed to and chunk them there.
3) Set aside time to read through them … outside of normal working time …
That way you get to keep your emails, but they’re not in your Inbox, creating false urgency by their presence.
A sense of false urgency. Ha. Every marketer’s dream, no?
And Jamie’s downfall.
I want to see posts on coping with false urgency.
(good tips; I’ll try that!)
(I also think that I *will* miss them, but for the sake of experimentation, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt…)
@James I can so relate to worrying about missing THE ONE THING … not only do I subscribe to far too much, I file it all too, in case it’s important in the future!
Dave, I’m going to print that out in big writing and start a daily mantra: “The only important emails? The ones you actually take action on. You don’t need every list, every feed … you just need to take action on what comes your way.” Thank you!
Gmail is another thing I’ve heard or read about but don’t really know anything. But I’m on steep enough a learning curve at the moment to start getting to grips with something else! I will take your advice though and sort through filed emails at a special time.
:o)
@Dianne -
Gmail is easy to use … if you wanted to make it easy to get used to, you could set up an account and move all of your newsletters there
Ha! This is true … I really don’t have an excuse do I? Thank you, Dave, I’ll look at it tomorrow.
No, I won’t, I will’ DO it tomorrow!
But it will have to be tomorrow as I’m exhausted and off to bed. Hope you enjoyed Blogger Appreciation Day!
:o)
Dianne,
As I tell my coaching clients: “Excuses are for people who are … not *you*.”
Glad you’re taking action
And thanks, I enjoyed the “blogger holiday!”
I’m glad you brought up this topic. At one point I was following some of those rules, and then little by little the inbox has exploded again. Today I’ll implement more rules and take more control of my time. As always, thanks for the pep talk. Love your blog!
Dave, thank you for the gmail advice (much-needed kick up the bum!), I made it a mission to set up an account today and I now have a google mail account (that is the same thing, isn’t it?) and have sent myself an email so i know it works!
Found importing contacts impossible (something to do with a CSV file or something) but in a way this is a good thing. I manually added the most important and might keep hotmail and have two emails for two different things … hmmm, lots to play around with tomorrow.
Thank you again, you rock! :o)
@Jeanne -
Glad to help. Thanks for the shout out!
@Dianne -
Use your gmail account wisely, and use it as a staging ground to build better email habits. One step at a time!
More great advice, Dave, thank you! I feel like it’s a fresh start, to use for all the REALLY important stuff. I plan to move things over bit by bit, maybe leaving hotmail for the things I can’t bear to eliminate but keep them all separate.
I promise to think carefully before adding anything to gmail!
I also deleted five email feeds from my hotmail account this morning … and have been so busy I can’t even remember which ones. The mantra is working!
:o)
Hi Dave, tonight my email inbox is empty. Yep, totally empty! Even took a screenshot and posted it to my blog as proof. I deleted the stuff that was cluttering my way to peace. If I really need it, it’s easily found online. As a result of my nice clean white space I’m going to bed tonight feeling free. It’s possible and it is amazing!
@Dianne -
A fresh start makes all the difference. Keep it cranking!
@Karen -
Whoo-hoo! “Inbox heaven” is a good place to be. And it’s funny how freeing it feels, ain’t it?