You are warmly invited to unsubscribe

Lighten up your inbox!

Silence is golden.

But not only that… Your email inbox is a sacred space, too.

Do you treat your email inbox like a precious pool of valued communion and info? Where you hear from people—personal and professional—that you actually like?

Or have you allowed Tom, Dick, and Harry to send you tripe you aren’t putting into action…and it’s cluttering up your inbox and making you bananas?

Now hear this: Stella doesn’t care how many freebies you’ve scored because you’ve given up your email address. That’s a fine strategy when you’re shoestringing it.

But if that means you are now on more lists than you can read, it’s high time to unsubscribe. En masse and with great gusto.

You know what it’s like? Giving your number to someone you have no desire to see again. And he keeps calling and calling…and you’re exasperated by his overtures, but you never step up and say “I’m just not feeling it and I don’t think you’re the one for me.”

And so it is with email.

Yes, I write emails for a living. Yes, I wholeheartedly believe that we can create intimate, real connections with our ideal clients by way of their email inboxes.

But at some point, you have to let go what you have no plans to use. You won’t be better informed when you’re on more mailing lists. It doesn’t work like that. You just end up getting more email. If you haven’t read it in the last 30 days, unsubscribe!

Bless & release the emails you never read. Trust that the information you need will find you when you need it. Let go and lighten up—in your inbox, as in life.

Some ways to curate your email inbox like a fine collection:

* Pick 1-2 skills each quarter that you want to learn more about – subscribe to those lists only.

* Limit subscriptions to 2-3 lists, and set the rest free

* If you are “studying” someone’s messaging or strategy, create a filter that bypasses your inbox, and goes straight into your collection

* Create a “read & review” folder in your email, and route all newsletters and promotional emails there. Set a specific time to read every week. What you don’t get to, delete!

* Notice whose emails you enjoy reading, and which ones you don’t resonate with. Let go of the latter.

I warmly invite you to unsubscribe gleefully from any list that you aren’t actively reading, interacting with, or loving. It’ll be there when you need it. Or something better will come along to take its place.

Mighty thanks to Incurable_hippie flickr’s photostream for the sidewalk.