At one point in time I had an almost empty email inbox – and that was a few seconds after I set it up.
From there on it just kept filling up.
And around january each year I make myself a promise that I will declutter my email inbox, cut back on unnessecary newsletter subscriptions, and neatly organize every email as they arrive.
And every year I fail miserably.
It always starts great as I sprinkle a bit of “organizing dust” on my inbox.
Getting my inbox organized is 1 part deleting unneeded emails and 1 part unsubscribing from non-essential newsletters to keep it from getting cluttered again.
So during January I slowly work my way through the pile of emails that have accumulated during the last year.
I usually just sort by “From” or “Title” and start looking for batches of unopened emails because anything that is generally left unopened during the year can’t be that important.
That alone takes care of 80% of the clutter.
It’s amazing how many newsletters and email lists I sign up for during just 12 months.
One thing that is definitely not helping here is all those squeezepages you encounter as you try to learn more and more about internet marketing.
There’s always somebody telling you that they’ve found the holy grail of internet marketing and that you can have a free report or a free video if you just enter your email.
It’s a bit like buying a mystery gift bag – sometimes there’s something useful inside, and other times you’re just left with a piece of worthless junk – except that mystery gifts usually don’t try to upsell you ;-)
And once you’re on one list you’ll soon be joining more and more – it spreads like ripples in a pond.
Biggest “culprits” are giveaways – be lured into just one of these and bam, you’re signed up for 50 lists.
And out of curtesy you stay signed up for their list after having downloaded their free gift, but only to realize one year after that they have provided you with absolutely nothing of value if their followup mails.
So the clutter creeps up on you and you need to organize your inbox – and keep it organized.
Because otherwise you might end up missing important emails – emails from *real* newsletters, emails from *real* people, emails that provide value to you.
I currently have 24225 unopened emails in my inbox – how about you?
And what are you doing to prevent it from growing back to those sizes again?
At one point in time I had an almost empty email inbox – and that was a few seconds after I set it up.
From there on it just kept filling up.
And around january each year I make myself a promise that I will declutter my email inbox, cut back on unnessecary newsletter subscriptions, and neatly organize every email as they arrive.
And every year I fail miserably.
It always starts great as I sprinkle a bit of “organizing dust” on my inbox.
Getting my inbox organized is 1 part deleting unneeded emails and 1 part unsubscribing from non-essential newsletters to keep it from getting cluttered again.
So during January I slowly work my way through the pile of emails that have accumulated during the last year.
I usually just sort by “From” or “Title” and start looking for batches of unopened emails because anything that is generally left unopened during the year can’t be that important.
That alone takes care of 80% of the clutter.
It’s amazing how many newsletters and email lists I sign up for during just 12 months.
One thing that is definitely not helping here is all those squeezepages you encounter as you try to learn more and more about internet marketing.
There’s always somebody telling you that they’ve found the holy grail of internet marketing and that you can have a free report or a free video if you just enter your email.
It’s a bit like buying a mystery gift bag – sometimes there’s something useful inside, and other times you’re just left with a piece of worthless junk – except that mystery gifts usually don’t try to upsell you ;-)
And once you’re on one list you’ll soon be joining more and more – it spreads like ripples in a pond.
Biggest “culprits” are giveaways – be lured into just one of these and bam, you’re signed up for 50 lists.
And out of curtesy you stay signed up for their list after having downloaded their free gift, but only to realize one year after that they have provided you with absolutely nothing of value if their followup mails.
So the clutter creeps up on you and you need to organize your inbox – and keep it organized.
Because otherwise you might end up missing important emails – emails from *real* newsletters, emails from *real* people, emails that provide value to you.
I currently have 24225 unopened emails in my inbox – how about you?
And what are you doing to prevent it from growing back to those sizes again?
Personally my graphics design skills suck big time, but if you’re more of an artist than me and up for a little challenge then there’s a nice opportunity to get some exposure for your design business.
