I just read portions of your colleague, Julio Vincent Gambuto's, book, Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!.... and did a first sweep (took days!) unsubscribing from emails. What a relief to lighten up the inbox load. I now need to go in and do another sweep. And then another! Baby steps towards reducing my digital addiction. Thank you to you and the commenters for very helpful tools on this journey.
Oh, digital is such a sneaky one. Emails get me stuck! Lots of fantastic recommendations, though I may disagree with creating a separate email for junk/etc, isn't that a little like renting a storage unit for the excess stuff you really don't need and probably won't want to go through? Just a thought :) thanks for all the tips!
I hear you. My colleague Julio Vincent Gambuto suggests considering WHY we receive so many emails in the first place and looking to the root cause - i.e. our own consumption, people pleasing, opting in when we want to opt out etc. Thanks for reading! x
A detox whether it's digital or material, is the best feeling ever. It clears the stress and grounds the soul. I have had a material detox recently but I certainly need to update the digital detox as its been about 3 months. Thanks for the reminder!
Twice a year I delete all work emails that are over two weeks old. They go into the deleted folder (still retrievable) but having an empty inbox is mentally freeing. Also the information in most emails is obsolete in a day or two.
I'm all for a digital declutter -- this is great advice! One small thing I'd call out is it's sufficient to unsubscribe from emails. You don't need to then ALSO mark them as "spam." When you mark something as spam it negatively impacts the sender's reputation and makes it harder for them to deliver emails globally (to anyone). If a sender is hiding the unsubscribe link or making it hard, then by all means mark it spam, but if you're able to easily unsubscribe then it should be sufficient to just do that.
I know email marketing can be annoying, but people at these companies are working hard (I used to be one of those people!) and I think just letting them know you prefer not to get their emails is enough :)
I've committed to culling through photos shortly after taking them. I find that I only have about 10 photos from each month and that makes handling that sort of digital clutter a lot easier to handle.
I downloaded opal which blocks me from using Instagram 5 days a week during work hours. I also try to sabbath once a week and stay off of my phone, read more, exercise and spend undistracted time with my loved ones. Thank you for sharing these awesome tips. My apps are pretty clear but email junk is my next media cleanse I need to work on.
I deleted social media apps off my phone and logged out of their desktop websites. I’m planning to go through my settings and turn off any notifications I don’t need. Also considering unplugging my TV except for one day a week.
I thought I was doing pretty good with this post until we got to decluttering your desktop. 😬 definitely need to figure out a system for files and photos
I just read portions of your colleague, Julio Vincent Gambuto's, book, Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!.... and did a first sweep (took days!) unsubscribing from emails. What a relief to lighten up the inbox load. I now need to go in and do another sweep. And then another! Baby steps towards reducing my digital addiction. Thank you to you and the commenters for very helpful tools on this journey.
Oh, good. I devoured his book! Happy unsubscribing! x
Oh, digital is such a sneaky one. Emails get me stuck! Lots of fantastic recommendations, though I may disagree with creating a separate email for junk/etc, isn't that a little like renting a storage unit for the excess stuff you really don't need and probably won't want to go through? Just a thought :) thanks for all the tips!
I hear you. My colleague Julio Vincent Gambuto suggests considering WHY we receive so many emails in the first place and looking to the root cause - i.e. our own consumption, people pleasing, opting in when we want to opt out etc. Thanks for reading! x
Thank you!
Very welcome! x
A detox whether it's digital or material, is the best feeling ever. It clears the stress and grounds the soul. I have had a material detox recently but I certainly need to update the digital detox as its been about 3 months. Thanks for the reminder!
You got it. Happy de-toxing!
What about those 3,400 photos on the phone….any suggestions?
A few ideas:
1. You can save them to an external hard drive and then remove them from your phone.
2. You can spend 15-minutes a day deleting unwanted photos
3. You can mass delete duplicates which will cut down on volume. In iphone go to albums > utilities > duplicates > merge to combine duplicates
Hope this helps! x
Twice a year I delete all work emails that are over two weeks old. They go into the deleted folder (still retrievable) but having an empty inbox is mentally freeing. Also the information in most emails is obsolete in a day or two.
Brilliant! x
I'm all for a digital declutter -- this is great advice! One small thing I'd call out is it's sufficient to unsubscribe from emails. You don't need to then ALSO mark them as "spam." When you mark something as spam it negatively impacts the sender's reputation and makes it harder for them to deliver emails globally (to anyone). If a sender is hiding the unsubscribe link or making it hard, then by all means mark it spam, but if you're able to easily unsubscribe then it should be sufficient to just do that.
I know email marketing can be annoying, but people at these companies are working hard (I used to be one of those people!) and I think just letting them know you prefer not to get their emails is enough :)
That's a fair point. Marking as "spam" should be a last resort if the unsubscribe request doesn't work. Updated! x
I've committed to culling through photos shortly after taking them. I find that I only have about 10 photos from each month and that makes handling that sort of digital clutter a lot easier to handle.
Ooh that's brilliant! My photos are out of control!
I downloaded opal which blocks me from using Instagram 5 days a week during work hours. I also try to sabbath once a week and stay off of my phone, read more, exercise and spend undistracted time with my loved ones. Thank you for sharing these awesome tips. My apps are pretty clear but email junk is my next media cleanse I need to work on.
Ooh thanks for sharing - will have to check out Opal. x
Shira! So enjoying the challenge! Would be amazing as a weekly one page printable checklist 🥰🥰
So glad you're enjoying! I did create a one sheet checklist for paid subscribers as well as a Clutter-Free Holiday video workshop. Happy holidays! x
Ah I must have missed this! I will look for it! xo
I am going to unsubscribe to all unnecessary emails and deleting apps on my phone. Great article. Feel inspired to unplug!!!
Woot woot!!
I deleted social media apps off my phone and logged out of their desktop websites. I’m planning to go through my settings and turn off any notifications I don’t need. Also considering unplugging my TV except for one day a week.
Love these so much! x
I just reduced the number of apps on my phone and unfollowed irrelevant Instagram accounts.
Well done! Hope it feels cleansing! x
I am going to stop all notifications! Yipppeee!!!
Hooray!!
I thought I was doing pretty good with this post until we got to decluttering your desktop. 😬 definitely need to figure out a system for files and photos
I find that making the categories very broad makes it easy to manage by batching. Good luck! x
I just “quieted” my desktop computer icons and it took way less than 15 minutes! Thank you for the inspiration!
Ooh love the quieting! x