How often do you delete emails without reading them?
It starts innocently enough. Maybe you signed up for emails to get a discount on your shopping trip one day, or you signed up for a card at a restaurant to get a free appetizer. Perhaps you signed a petition to show your support for a political cause.
And now you get the email updates.
As we de-clutter our closets, our attics, our cupboards and drawers, and our homes, we sometimes don’t stop to think about digital clutter. Seeing a full inbox can be just as frustrating as seeing an overflowing dresser drawer, and you do have the power to de-clutter the inbox as well as the tangible items in your life.
I have a post coming on my own strategy for cleaning out your inbox to make it a well-oiled machine. Today, I just want to focus on the power of the unsubscribe feature. Those four little words will do wonders to stop the junk email from flowing into your inbox in the first place.
If you are deleting an email without reading it, ask yourself why.
Next time, open the email, scroll to the bottom, and find in the smallest, greyest print, “Click here to unsubscribe.” The following page may be pleading and sad as it asks you in a tiny voice if you might please reconsider and continue getting the emails. It’s okay to click unsubscribe. Your time, even the time it takes to click “Delete,” is valuable. Take it back. Unsubscribe.
What have you unsubscribed from lately?
Caitlin Liz Fisher 
I have a separate gmail account that I use for subscriptions and newsletters, and some days I don’t check it at all. However, if I find that I’m not looking at the links/deals/whatever even when I do check the account, I unsubscribe. Most recently, I unsubscribed from my political party’s updates. I know how I’m voting this year, and knew I wouldn’t read them.
That’s the same story on some of mine. I am already voting for you, I don’t need your emails!
I discovered the magical unsubscribe button perhaps six months ago and it is so nice to have a fairly empty inbox or at least only interesting stuff coming in!
It is a magical mythical beast, but it has amazing power! 🙂
Just about everything. Ebay ! Which I never use… and those groupon type things since they don’t offer any ones for my area.
Nice. The Groupons are annoying but I do occasionally take them up on offers. I live near Cleveland and there are lots of decent ones that crop up!