Unsubscribe for More Time

For me, organizing is about one thing: having more time to do what you love to do. Which is why removing clutter from your surroundings is key. Spending time looking for what you need (car keys, wallet, passport) is time you could otherwise spend doing what you enjoy.

But it’s not just tangible stuff eating up our time.

I’ve spent countless (and precious) seconds each day “weeding out” and deleting my inbox of unwanted emails (a.k.a. electronic clutter). It’s easier to simply hit “delete” as I go scroll through my phone than it is to search for the word “unsubscribe” in the smallest font possible. Also, I reasoned, I didn’t want to miss out on a sale from (fill in the blank: The Gap, Starbucks, Target, etc.).

However, the same way saving pennies adds up, this also true with seconds. That time I was taking out of my day (after day, after day) deleting emails, added up significantly. And forget those moments I actually took the bait and clicked on an email.

“Oh, a sale a JCrew? Let me look for a second.” And off I would go, pulled from my work, to scour the pages of a website whose goods already filled my closet.

Not anymore.

Last week, instead of deleting each unwelcome email I began “unsubscribing.” After the fifteenth one, I decided to keep track. So far I have unsubscribed from 48. That’s 48 emails coming in on a regular basis, redirecting me from my regularly scheduled day, and derailing my productivity. But with just click, I’m taking back my time.

One of the reasons I haven’t written a blog in a while is because I’ve been busy working on my next book, which, I’m happy to say, is almost done. I wonder though, had I not been spending so much time deleting superfluous emails on a daily basis would I have completed the book by now? Hard to say for sure, though what I do know is I need to “unsubscribe” from that type of thinking.