Good Riddance

Today, before and after writing, publishing and deleting a post that could apparently be interpreted as in poor taste and worse yet NOT FUNNY, I have been on a mission. A mission to de-clutter my email inboxes. I have 5 email addresses, 3 personal and 2 work ones. I get way too many emails. 


My primary email is for friends, the kids' activities and fb. I use the secondary email when I order things, because someone Oprah had on her show back in the day said that it's good to have an email to use for e-commerce that doesn't have your name in the address and is separate from your primary one. It's more secure I guess. The details are fuzzy, but it seemed like sound advice at the time. My tertiary email is just for my yahoo groups. When I signed up for yahoo groups, it seemed that I needed a yahoo email for it. I'm not sure this is true. It kinda seems like a stupid requirement. Perhaps I made it up. Nevertheless, the yahoo account exists. The fourthary and fifthary ones are for work. 


I am all about emails, texts and facebook messages. Dopamine releases in my brain when my iPhone is all lit up with little numbers and alerts are sounding. The text alert is particularly pleasurable. When it happens and I'm driving it takes all my will power to wait for a stop light to read it. I think teenagers should have to lock their phones in the glove box while driving so they can't possibly drive and text. Everyone knows it's super dangerous, but the pull is so strong! I stopped texting and driving when I hit a curb. Scary as hell and enough of a wake up call for me. Increasingly I don't have time for the copious emails from Target, Costco, Bath & Body, Hungry Girl, All Recipes, alumni associations, a company I ordered a curling iron from 5 years ago, and Rainbow Rewards which I apparently signed up for at some juncture, but don't remember doing so. First thing in the morning and several times a day I get excited by that little red number in the double digits and merrily open "all inboxes" only to be let down by all the junk, most of which gets deleted unopened. Even though I know that most of the emails are going straight to the trash, I can't help but get a little excited every time I hear the sound and see the numbers.


This vicious cycle ends today! It is unbelievably easy to get yourself off these email lists. A quick scroll to the bottom of the email, a click on unsubscribe and viola! A few have asked if I would like to provide a reason for the break up, but it's not required. There must be some law about this or else it would be way more difficult. I wish it was so easy to get actual junk mail to stop coming to my actual mailbox up the street. I believe you can make some of it stop coming, but it involves a phone call which I'm not so big on. I'm having a very fuzzy memory, more of a notion really, that there is a website that can help with this. I'm going to Google it. Hopefully they don't start sending me emails.


Peace & Love :-)