The Why: The email I use frequently had 73 emails in the inbox; all stuff I had read and failed to do something with. My other email, the one I use mostly for newsletters and people who still send me forwards of cats and midi music, had a whopping 764 emails in the inbox, largely unread.
I was still receiving regular emails from a big-box store that we resolved last New Years not to shop at anymore. We haven't been to this store in 8 months, and have no plans to ever go again, but I didn't think to unsubscribe from their emails?***
I even still had my confirmation email from when I signed up for myspace. MYSPACE!? Wow.
The How: So I went through my emails, filed things into appropriate files, deleted a lot of stuff, and unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing list, including all the mailing lists that well meaning people had signed me up for against my will so that I could receive all those handy coupons and junk mail. Oy vey.
Time Spent: The whole thing took me about an hour, but only because my husband has the day off today. If he were at work and I was alone with the children I'm pretty sure the project would've taken me a day and a half.
The Verdict: So now, each day when I spend time dealing with my emails, I can empty out my inbox. Stuff that may be needed for later reference can be filed in appropriate folders, and everything else can be deleted once I'm done with it. No more junk hanging over my head. I have clean and happy email inboxes ready to be used for actual communication.
Now if only I could unsubscribe from cute forwards filled with pictures of cats...
***(I'm not going to tell you what store it is, but it rhymes with, um... Doll-Cart. Just Sayin'.)
We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!
I've been following your blog since Day 1 and have been so inspired. I've followed some of your changes and I've implemented some of my own. I've started posting weekly to my Facebook to keep me accountable on a weekly basis on my progress for a radical life change that promotes a life focusing on my family and Christ. I did the email/inbox clean up in the beginning and I can't believe how fast I zoom through my emails each morning now that I don't have all the junk. So freeing! And same as you, I was receiving emails from companies that I ordered 1 birthday present from years ago, box stores I don't shop at, and recipes I can't use since we eat organic/gluten-free/process-free. Yesterday, I woke up and I had no new emails.....that has NEVER happened!! Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice to have a clean slate. I've been doing this one myself. Creating filters is helpful too - you can set them to automatically send certain senders to certain folders. Like certain pushy stores to your junk box. I'm still looking for a filter for cat forwards, too...someone! Somewhere! Invent this!
ReplyDeleteYou stopped shopping there too? People call me crazy for not going there! They are such a stinky awful company though!
ReplyDeleteMy family recently made the decision to stop shopping at, um, "Doll-Cart" too and we have never been happier. This decision has enabled us to support local artisans, shops, and vendors, and we LOVE giving our money to people who truly need it, and earn it.
DeleteThe other month I was trying to merge my emails into one so I wouldn't have to check on 3 (plus a work one that I'll be getting). Well, I must have done it wrong, because I wanted email 1 to go into email 2, but it was reversed. What happened is email 2 imported ALL of my 2000+ emails and marked as NEW. After I undid the merge, I still had to go through. It got to the point where I just deleted it all - that ENTIRE inbox is completely empty. And since I have no idea of what was there to begin with except old emails from college, I have no regret with it being empty. Makes up for the minor inconvenience of having way too many emails.
ReplyDeleteI have been meaning to do that for ages, but I am sure it will take me FOREVER so I keep putting it off. I have over 1000 unread e-mails in my inbox and get tons of e-mails every day from things that I don't want/need/use. Glad you have a happy e-mail inbox! Hope you are having a good week!
ReplyDelete-Sandy
I have recently been going through my emails and unsubscribing from companies that I don't shop from or ever need to. It has been so freeing to see just a few emails each morning instead of 20!
ReplyDeleteI really need to do this. I have three email accounts, one personal, one for coupons and one for work. The work one will be cancelled by the end of the month, the two personal ones well one has over 31,000 emails in it and 3,257 are unread. The other has only like 1,700 emails with 1,500 unread. Yesterday I was about to hit delete all. And I don't check them everyday. Yep 31,000 emails is excessive.
ReplyDeleteI find that if I sort by 'sender' it is easier...that way I can delete many of the older emails from the same person...and I can get rid of all the emails from the same junk mailer at the same time.
ReplyDelete