Peace of Mind Organizing

Declutter your inbox

22 October 2010

Lately, I’ve been taking a moment to unsubscribe from promotional emails I receive on a regular basis that I usually delete. Just a moment ago, I unsubscribed from promo emails from a major electronics retailer. When I thought about the last couple of times I shopped there, it was when I had something specific in mind. It had nothing to do with these promotional emails, which come almost on a daily basis.

I also unsubscribed from daily emails from a women’s clothing retailer. I used to shop there and loved the coupons that came via email. But they changed their clothing’s look and I haven’t purchased anything there in over a year. So I unsubbed. And it felt good.

An alternative would have been for me to create a rule in my Mac’s Mail program to automatically send those emails to a Coupons folder. But they would have just accumulated there. If I’m going to shop at one of these stores, I’m confident I could find those coupons through a Google search.

Do you have emails you receive on a regular basis that were once of interest and no longer are? Go ahead and click that Unsubscribe button on the bottom of the email. The law requires it to be there for a reason. You probably won’t miss the emails and if you do, you can always resubscribe.

If you do want to receive these emails but don’t want them in your face, consider having them automatically filter out of your line of sight into a special folder. But don’t forget to clean that folder out from time to time.

If decluttering your email inbox appeals to you, you can do the same thing for your physical mailbox by opting out of junk mail. The Federal Trade Commission offers advice on doing just that on its website.

Tagged with: decluttering, email, mail

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