James Alvarez 9/24/24 James Alvarez 9/24/24

How many email newsletters do you get per week?

I'm always trying to keep a clean inbox.

When I’m out I have a bad habit of looking over people’s shoulders to see what they’re doing on their phones. There are the obvious and common things, like scrolling through social media. There are maybe the not so obvious things, like frantically switching between apps looking for a way to distract themselves. But the thing that I notice most often, and the thing that surprises me the most, is how many unnecessary emails fill up peoples inboxes.

I’ve seen it over and over again, people scrolling through their personal email, deleting 10, 30, 40, 50 unread emails. Psychologically and physiologically I assume receiving an email is akin to the feeling you get when someone likes your post, or follows you, or comments something nice on your picture. But, like social media, it is such a waste of time. It’s noise to your brain.

The number of emails you get, like the amount of sleep you don’t get, has become a badge of honor. I have so many friends and family members say, “I didn’t see that email. I’ve just got too many to sort through.”

When I started working in 2009 as a financial analyst, the only work I had came from my boss, our CFO. If he was busy, or out, and I finished my project, I would sit and wish I had something to do. I would wish to have an inbox full of emails from people requesting information. I wished that for a long time until I finally got it. Towards the end of my career I would receive 100 - 200 emails per day. There was just no way to keep up. Being unable to answer everyone instilled a feeling of chaos, inadequacy, and failure into my days, and I grew to hate it.

Now that I don’t have a 9 - 5 job, and my personal email is all I have to manage, I do my best to keep my inbox clean. I always keep my inbox below 10 emails, ideally less than 5. After 3 - 5 days of an email sitting in my inbox there are only three options:

Respond
File it
Delete it

When it comes to newsletters, promotional emails, and other “email subscriptions,” I make it a regular habit to unsubscribe right away to anything I know is not going to be of any value to me. I’m not using the promotions, so why am I giving these companies access to my conscious? I no longer enjoy that newsletter, so why am I allowing it to continue to hit my inbox?

Once I realize that the email has no utility in my life, I remove it.

Time is our most precious commodity. And our time is becoming more and more hijacked the further technology advances. Cleaning out your inbox is a simple and effective way to take time back, and de-clutter your brain.