Take Time To Cleanup Your Inbox

Okay, now I know that this isn't an Outdoor entry, and I apologize in advance. However, if you're going to follow my blog, you are going to get some entries and stories that are off the beaten path. Okay then. Now that we have that out of the way...

I'd like to begin with a complaint that, I have to admit, is all my fault. I also know that a lot of you also share this, and should accept the blame and do something about it. It'll take time. It'll take patience. It'll be heart-wrenching. Big, huge, gigantic decisions will need to be made. Should I keep my daily email subscription from SharkNinja? Oh my?!? Okay, no offense to SharkNinja at all. I promise. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my Shark vacuum. But do I really need a daily email from them showing me other vacuums I can purchase instead of the one I already have? I will look you up when I'm ready to buy another vacuum. I mean, come on, mine is only a year old!!!

Now I know I went a little out there, but that's just it. I was seriously getting a weekly email from SharkNinja for the entire last year, since I went onto their site and handed them my email address. Presto! Here's a ton of emails that we are going to send you to try and get you to buy more stuff from us, even though you may not need it.

However, the point is, how many of these daily/weekly email subscriptions are you opted-in to receive? Thirty? Fifty? A hundred? How many do you truly read through? I have to tell you, that I just thought about this. I spend about fifteen to twenty minutes a day just opening Gmail on my phone and clicking on every single email and quickly hitting the back button to mark that I "read" that email. Isn't that just stupid? Yes, I have been stupid and wasting a good chunk of my day on this.

However, because of how long it takes, how boring it is, and how many there are, I mark the important emails "unread" and go on to marking the other 50 emails "read". Then, I don't really have the time or patience to actually go back and read the important emails. So, my email has just become something that provides very little actual assistance, and a whole lot of time-wasting.

Do what I just did. I just spent the last 2 hours going through every single email and opting out of a butt-load of subscriptions. It's kind of like unhoarding your inbox, and freeing up time. But don't give up there. Keep this in the back of your mind. Write down this accomplishment and keep it somewhere you will always see. It will be a reminder to keep your email free of unwanted time-takers.

Get some of your life back, people. Take that time back and GYLBO (Get Your Lazy Butt Outside)! You'll thank me for it!

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