Distractions… Where You Least Expect Them
Phones. Notifications. Scrolling. Interruptions. That thing you forgot to do yesterday.
I talk about all these distractions, but one I hadn’t really thought about until I tackled mine was (drumroll please) THE INBOX!
I do believe in handling emails once. I’m good but not great (!) at moving emails once I’ve dealt with them (to the trash can, archive folders, whatever.)
But one thing I hadn’t done was decluttered what was coming in the “door”: all the newsletters from stores, other entrepreneurs, random thought leaders, etc. When I open up my email, I usually do a quick scan and delete the new messages whose subject lines don’t interest me.
Which doesn’t seem like it takes that long. Even when there are dozens a day. That’s why I had left it for so long; I figured all those emails I didn’t pay attention to didn’t really affect my productivity.
But last week I thought, why am I allowing all this stuff to be in my way every morning (and throughout the day)? I started to declutter.
And I’ve found that when I come in and I have fewer emails to look at it, I do feel less distracted. Less overwhelmed. More… you guessed it… productive. It makes me feel better about my time management skills, because it’s faster both physically and mentally to get to what I need to do that day.
If you’ve got a bunch of people who email you and you never, or only once in a blue moon, open their emails, go ahead and click the unsubscribe button at the bottom. (Even if it’s mine! *sob* But maybe read mine once or twice to see if you really, really want to give it up?)
Be warned, this project will take longer than you expect. You’ll get to a less distracting inbox eventually, but it does take time to get there. Because:
You subscribed to more than one newsletter from someone, and they set up separate unsubscribes for each
You have to read the teeny tiny fine print at the bottom to find the unsubscribe button (for some reason, retail stores are TERRIBLE in this regard - if you have a newsletter, please make it easy to do)
Sometimes you have to click more than one button on the unsubscribe page once you actually are directed there
You’ll be doing this all week because people send their stuff out on different days (though mostly your weekend unsubscribes will be for retail and online stores)
You’re worried you’re missing valuable information so you have to scan the email before you’re comfortable unsubscribing
Along the way, you might run into things from your old life that you no longer do, and feel a pang of nostalgia. For me, it was all the triathlon gear I subscribed to, back when I was doing triathlons. Some of the newsletters might be aspirational, and those are OK to toss too.
Many of the newsletters I unsubscribed to are from small businesses. Yet I want to support them. But if I’m not reading their newsletters, I’ll never buy from them.
As someone with her own email newsletter, yes, it’s a little painful to see unsubscribe numbers! But if you’re not really interested in my content and don’t find it helpful, neither of us wants you on my list. I want the people receiving my emails to read them and pick out valuable content from them.
The number of people who subscribe to your newsletter is a vanity metric. The number of people who read your newsletter and find it valuable is the real metric.
So go ahead and purge. Enjoy your new inbox!
Have trouble with other distractions, like phones, “social” media, interruptions, and the like? Grab your free quiz for reducing distractions here.