How to clean out your email in 10 minutes or less

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Have you ever wished you could clean out your email without taking an entire day to do it? I just checked my email and I have 435 unread messages. Yes, you read that right.  Four hundred, thirty-five.

My blood pressure rises every time I check my email.  I feel guilt over not reading all of it.  And yet, I can’t possibly read all of it.

How did I get here in the first place?

By saying YES to #allofthethings.

I ran across this quote while researching, “information overload”:

“Information overload is a symptom of our desire to not focus on what’s important. It is a choice.” 
― Brian Solis

That’s a big FOR SURE, right?!

If you’re tired of saying “yes” to all of the things too, we are going to unclutter that email inbox today.  Get your fingers ready and steel your mindset.  It’s about to go down, ya’ll.

1.)  After I wrote that up there ^^^ I subscribed to Unroll.me.

All you have to do is sign in under an account – you have a choice between google, facebook, or twitter.  Maybe something else – I was too excited to get rid of my email guilt so I just went with google.

2.)  Next, it listed a bunch of emails I’m subscribed to and asked me if I wanted to unsubscribe to any of them.

3.)  This step is seriously the most painless unsubscribing step I’ve ever experienced.  All I did was click on the “X”.

Ya’ll.  I may have gotten a bit trigger happy.  But it just felt so good, and I wanted to let it go so badly, that I did it.  Just like that.

4.) Then, it asked me to roll up subscriptions that I kept and wanted to see first thing.

And that was the end.

THE.END.

I may have unsubscribed to some of my blogging friend’s emails.  This is hard.  But I simply haven’t the brain space for it all anymore.  Here are some questions to ask yourself before deleting:

5 Questions to ask yourself when evaluating email

1.)  Does this bring value to my productivity?

2.)  Do I get anxious every time I see this email?

3.) Am I feeling FOMO every time I read this email?

4.) Why am I subscribed to this email

5.) In 10 years, where will this email get me?  (Just kidding, but really.  Why do you have so many emails?)

You can get rid of email.  You can.  I promise.  I feel so light and airy now!

If you need help – bring a friend.  Ask her to sit beside you and help you clean out – just like people do with their homes and closets.  Get support!

This is Step One to decluttering your mind in 2018.  For more guidance on the subject, check out my 31 Days to a Clutter-free Mind challenge!  It’ll set you back on track for focus and productivity.

And one more thing?

Take email off your phone.

Email doesn’t need to rule your life.  Not any  more.  Try it for a week and see what happens.  I’m doing it too.  Ready?

Go.

If you found this blog post helpful, why not download this week’s freebie?  It outlines detailed steps to use Unroll.me just in case you’ve already forgotten (due to limited brain space), and gives a helpful checklist for taming that email in the future.