Do you BELIEVE it?! It’s a New Year! I love hearing peoples take on this pivotal season. The radio is peppered with motivating interviews and online posts brim with encouraging quotes.
Some folks talk about their Un-Dones——–trials, losses, hardships. Their stories strengthen me because they often close with “but God was faithful.”
Still others share their goals to Do-Over. These individual’s inspire me in their desire to take lessons learned and turn them into opportunities to grow personally or help others.
And then there are the more pragmatic goals for a New Year. Right now I’m following Kathy Lipp and her terrific take on what it means to De-Clutter. As a DoAhead Woman “ya’ll” know I love organization. “A place for everything and everything in its place” is a great DoAhead. But Kathy’s challenge has helped me——–
Think about the without!
There are a number of areas that this DoAhead Woman could declutter but the first one that screamed for my attention was my email. I knew that my inbox was getting out of hand but something in me snapped the morning I checked my phone and I had 62 emails!
I already employ “rules” on my desktop for what email I see but unless I want to pay for a service to screen the junk on my phone I’m stuck! I lamented my woeful situation to my sis and she brilliantly said, “Why don’t you unsubscribe? If the sites are legitimate they’ll let you do that.”
BINGO!
My thought bubble screamed, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Consequently, I’ve been on an “unsubscribing” war path. I’ve learned an important lesson along the way.
Sometimes low priority items need to be given top priority in order to put them in their place.
If I wanted to get the junk off my phone I had to move the unwanted emails from the junk file on my desktop to my closely guarded inbox. It was a pain! But the only way to get rid of them was to give them a temporary position of priority!
I found it ironic that something I desperately wanted to throw in cyber-space garbage had to receive top billing. BUT only for a short season! The attention I gave my growing list of unwanted mail was well worth the investment.
My phone has been thoroughly decluttered of unwanted messages. Every. Single. Morning. It makes me smile.
Whatever our goals for 2016 let’s not be afraid to give our unwanted clutter (physical or mental) the attention needed to manage, minimize or even eliminate.
(For more tips on clutter-free living visit Kathi at kathilipp.com!)
Words of wisdom from DoAhead contributor Dana Boyd will be waiting for you here on Wednesday!
Your (Decluttering) DoAhead Friend,
Love this girl! A tip someone also taught me was to have an email for shopping. You know if you order something you almost always end up on an email list. Only give your designated shopping email for this purpose. Then when you need to check a tracking status or your REALLY want to know about a sale or coupon you can go to that email.
Thanks for the encouragement…I’ve avoided the devious task of us subscribing long enough
Jodie I LOVE this idea. You’re absolutely right. I would guess that 90% of the emails I had to unsubscribe from were exactly that. Next on my list…a new email for shopping!