This week, I spent 60 minutes — ONCE — doing something that probably gets me 40 minutes back — DAILY.
I unsubscribed.
Not from blogs this time (although I am pretty aggressive with that: “5 Reasons I Unsubscribe From Your Blogs“), but from newsletters and e-crap.
“E-crap???,” my fellow marketers are probably screaming right now. I understand your pain! Our company uses and relies on newsletter and other direct marketing communications to stay in touch with members, fans, viewers, clients and more. I love newsletters. Making them. Reading them. Analyzing bounce rates and A/B splits (be still, my heart).
But I find myself subscribed to things that are no longer relevant, that came with some other signup process, that I got illegally dumped into, etc. And even when I don’t read them, I have to delete them every day, which takes time.
So I took an hour after work this week and painstakingly unsubscribed from everything I don’t get excited to open on a given day. (I’m looking at you, Amazon Daily Deals and Old Navy.) It was annoying. Repetitive. I cursed.
Many of the newsletters were redundant — I like the brand on Facebook or follow on Twitter, and I get the same information in my newsfeeds. Some were for events that I previously took part in and are now marketing to other cities, where I won’t be traveling. You get the idea.
Totally worth the investment of my hour. I’m already noticing a major difference in the time it takes me to do a first pass through email in the morning!
Not the most inventive or groundbreaking recommendations I’ve ever given, but I thought this might be the jumpstart some of you need to do a little inbox cleanup!
About Katy
So true! I am now inspired to clean out the clutter!
It’s time for me to do another round of decluttering. Thanks for reminding me!
I did that once, now it’s already time to do it again. I hate how I spend the first five minutes of each morning just hitting delete!
Ha! So true. I do that too.
I did the same thing a few weeks ago! It is amazing how much more I enjoy my email as I feel like it’s actually email and not junk mail. It has also helped limit the amount of shopping temptation I have each day!
OMG yes!! i did this a few weeks ago. life-changing. well, morning-changing at least! love it!
Man, I always THINK I need that Old Navy and Victoria’s Secret email, but I so don’t. I guess when you want to buy something you can always search online for a coupon code (which is why I use them), right?
So about that blog unsubscribing thing. It makes me feel so guilty! I think I have pity reads, when there are actually about 10-15 blogs I read most of the time. And 50 others that are just there. I don’t know how to stop the madness!
I started this process yesterday: every time an e-newsletter popped up that I didn’t care for anymore, I unsubscribed. Took hardly any time and I know my inbox will be much happier for it!
Ahhhh I NEED TO DO THIS. Thank you!
It’s funny you bring this up because this has been on my agenda to do as well. I just want a few minutes back into my days. This seems simple enough.
Thanks for the reminder! I’ve got to get on this.
Anytime I feel the need to just hit delete…I look for the unsubscribe button instead. No reason to keep getting it! And right before I read the post this morning I unsubscribed to 2 more emails. They never stop!
i need to do this!!!
Yes! I am a big unsubscriber! I think Godiva sends me an email every frickin day, and who needs that temptation first thing every morning?
Hah, I just posted on this a week ago. It took forever for me to unsubscribe to all those emails, but after a couple weeks of doing it, you find that you really do only get emails you want. Amazing!
I really need to do this as well!