Unsubscribe. That simple word makes me feel so peaceful when I find it at the bottom of an email that I don’t want to receive anymore. They definitely do not make it easy to find, but it’s there. You just have to look a little for it.
I receive a lot of emails at work and on my home email account and it can, at times, feel very overwhelming and cause me stress. It feels like so many people want my attention.
If you are receiving any emails that you immediately delete without reading (over and over) – unsubscribe! Little by little you will see a difference in your email inbox.
At work, I somehow am listed on a bunch of junk mail email lists (through registrations that I have submitted) and I try to unsubscribe to them as soon as I get them. Only two times this has backfired on me. One of our largest customers has an annual meeting that we help sponsor and are a part of. When I didn’t receive the registration I emailed my contact asking about it and she said “Well, I show that you unsubscribed from our meeting emails”. Oops. That is when it’s important to pay attention to who and what you are unsubscribing from. The other time was with a movie theatre in town, I unsubscribed from their emails, but every year on your birthday they send you one free movie ticket but I didn’t recieve it because I had unsubscribed.
So the moral of the story is – unsubsribe selectively – always make sure it’s not someone you will need to hear from in the future. If it is, then just delete those emails as they come in and unsubscribe from the other 492 emails that you don’t need.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Be very selective when signing up for new email subscriptions. If it is truly something that will help you in some way and you will read it or use, then go ahead.
- When shopping and the cashier asks for your email address for coupons – think twice (maybe three times) before giving to them. Just politely let them know that you are trying to cut down on the amount of emails you receive. By not signing up it can save you from having to unsubscribe later.
- As soon as you realize you are not even reading an email you receive – immediately unsubscribe. You will save yourself some time each day or week from weeding through emails that you do not need or want anymore.
Enjoy your email freedom!