Clean Out the Inbox

Happy New Year to all who celebrate that kinda thing…

I started this year by clearing out (and unsubscribing from) my inbox, which was so liberating, I knew I had to make it the first newsletter of the year.

At one point, I had 4,000 unread emails on my personal email account. Trust me, I’m not that popular.

Somehow, over the course of a few years, I signed up for enough shit that my email address became the holy grail of data miners everywhere.

I started a new gmail account for work last year, and without doing anything, within a few days I was receiving spam G-mails from Verizon. I have AT&T. 

Cleaning out your inbox is like the act of shedding within nature…

It’s something we all must do from time to time to make sure we are removing unnecessary or harmful things in our lives to make room for new and better.

Trees shed, fruits and vegetables shed, and most animals shed.

An incredible 97% of people receive spam in some form or another. There’s almost nothing more common in the world, if you think about it. But how can we see what’s truly meant for us, or sent to us, if you can’t filter through everything else?

Marie Kondo capitalized on The Minimalist Movement and our generation’s overwhelming desire to be happy in "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up."

Her method of saying goodbye to and 'thanking' certain items, while holding onto those which ‘spark joy,’ is so simple it makes you wonder how we got to this point.

Why do so many of us hold onto so much unnecessary stuff, and things that make us feel unhappy, throughout our entire lives? 

How many tabs open on your computer? Phone apps? Do you obsessively check them all day everyday?

We drag things into playlists, organize, and reorganize them again and again. Some we never even get to enjoy, either because we die or because we keep searching for more, never satisfied with the amount in the queue.

No wonder we continue to collect things like we’re our gatherer-ancestors. 

The amount of screenshots, saved social media posts, and bookmarks I think I’ll get to… I’ll never get to. The more they stack up, the more unlikely I’ll even start, and for some reason, that gives me even more anxiety.

Start each week by starting over electronically. Close down each window or tab on your computer, and take the time to remember what was so important about each one before opening it back up again. 

See how that changes your priorities.

P.S. Don't make this newsletter one you unsubscribe from :)

-EKS