 If you remember from last week, we were in Glacier Park for a week and coming home from that pristine environment complete with no wifi, phone or postal service, I had a dramatic collision with what was waiting for me! (378 emails, 13 text messages, 5 voicemails and about 10 pounds of real paper mail.)
Some of it was important! By my estimation, though, only 10%, or less, served me in any real way. And, this must be the NORMAL amount of mail per week, I just don’t notice it because, like a good little monkey, I keep up. It really got me wondering about how much time we spend every day clicking “delete” on email, recycling paper junk mail, or managing our calls and texts. It took me a long time to get through that list of emails! AND I felt a teeny bit queasy just seeing them all! So, I decided to take action and thought I’d share… EMAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS: Every “subscription” type of email has an unsubscribe feature in tiny print at the bottom. This is one option to delete unwanted email but it can be tedious and often involves a few different screen changes. Check out Unroll.me to manage these quickly! I had 165 automatic subscriptions coming to my inbox daily/weekly/monthly. In a matter of 3-4 minutes, I “unrolled” from 132 of them and now the ones I want to keep will be delivered to me weekly in a “rollup”. Nice! (I did have to “share” on social media...I put it up on Pinterest...to get past 5 deletes, but thought it was well worth it!) They have a fun video to get you started. PAPER JUNK MAIL:
This company (41pounds.org) will take the necessary steps to eliminate your unwanted junk mail for you. It costs $35 for 5 years of service. They had some great facts on their website, if you’re interested. I found an app, though, PaperKarma, with very good reviews that will (supposedly) stop your junk mail before it ever gets to you. YAY! I got it (it’s free) and am trying it with an unwanted Athleta catalog that arrived yesterday. PaperKarma claims to “get rid of junk mail and save the earth – all from your phone (androids too).” It works by taking a picture of the junk mail that you’ve been sent. The team behind it will send a request on your behalf to the offending companies so that you’ll be added to their block list. I will keep you posted! AND, if you’re really serious and this is only for those with nerves of steel and possibly a Long Cold, Winter ahead (sorry Kelly!!!!!)… GO PAPERLESS: This is the best book, Paperless, by David Sparks, that I have found on the subject. It costs $9.99 on iBooks. Sparks takes you through (sometimes in excruciating detail) the process of going completely paperless. He has DONE THE RESEARCH for you, and updates regularly (it’s only an ebook, of course). By the time you are finished, he says you will be an efficiency ninja with everything (except your paper documents with seals on them) electronically filed. He is very practical and at times, a little beyond my skill set. I was skimming but little by little I will learn more! I want to keep heading in this direction. One easy step to take is to enroll yourself in paperless billing/statements from your utilities, bank, and credit card companies. It usually takes a few minutes and can be done on their webpage. I would love to help you find that extra 70 hours of time you have coming to you this year! Please give me a shout if you need support sorting it out. Pick one of these ideas and give it a try! And then find me in the comments below to share how it goes. Keep your questions and comments coming, Lots of Love, XO Jane Cartoon by: Left Eye on the Media
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Jane Antonovich
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