Living minimally doesn’t always mean donating/recycling/tossing out things. I’m still purging (bags of shredded paper mostly), but this week I’ve been focused on health issues, and thinking about other ways to clear out the clutter.
I’ve pared down my email by unsubscribing to many newsletters and websites. It was all too much! I was receiving as many as 140 emails a day – recipes, health tips, political articles. I’ve deleted a lot of them. I still follow plenty of blogs, but I’ve changed the delivery of most of them to Saturday morning, when I don’t mind taking the extra time to catch up.
Late last year, I cut my Facebook friends list by about two-thirds. It was right after the election, and I had serious doubts about even continuing with Facebook. I decided to keep my author page active, but cut down on the number of connections on my personal page. There were some hurt feelings, which was never my intent, and I reclaimed as friends those who reached out to me. Social media has helped me find new readers. It’s enabled me, the introvert, to be social in a way that’s not anxiety-producing. But I try to limit myself to morning and evening – an hour or so at the beginning and the end of the day. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – it’s enough.
Think back to a time before social media. We kept in touch with friends by calling, writing, getting together. We certainly didn’t call our friends several times a day to
- Tell them what we ate for breakfast
- Describe what we were wearing that day
- Let them know we were tired
- Tell them what we ate for lunch
- Moan about traffic
- Tell them which restaurant we were in for dinner (and what we ordered)
I’m guilty, too. But I’m trying to be more mindful, trying not to clutter your feed with meaningless posts. In the end, each of us chooses what will bring us joy, inspiration, laughter.
Next week, back to filling the recycle bin!
Martha Reynolds Writes 
I constantly clean out subscriptions. If I unsubscribe or find no way to do that, I block them. I can’t waste time on them!
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Wow, yes, 140 a day is really nuts. I’m trying to train myself to unsubscribe from things, not just hit delete. I try not to feel sad when people unsubscribe from my author emails, as it’s far better to “talk” only to those who really want the news.
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So much wisdom here. I, too, briefly considered post-election deleting my f/b account, but it has become my main form of communication. Plus I’d miss out on a lot of family and friend stuff. Important stuff. It’s how we keep in touch, the new norm. But like you, I have pared down my left, unfriending those who never contact ME, if I am doing all the work.
I unsubscribed from all but a handful of websites and businesses. I hardly get any e-mails anymore (It’s all f/b!).
I’m going to try harder.
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Exactly, Denise. I have discovered some great bloggers through the A to Z Challenge (isn’t that how we met?). Many of those bloggers don’t post much during the year.
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I too have cut down my email lists, especially for blogs. I was reading many blogs and commenting, but not seeing comments in return. I have a separate account where all of the businesses send emails, but I cut those back too. I try to limit my time here at the computer and if I am reading emails, I am not posting.
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