“The problem is,
even though I find
their tactic annoying,
I don’t want to be
offensive to them.”
My business cards are in a lot of boxes.
My email address is available easily.
People often add me to their e-newsletters.
Raise your hand if they do this to you, too.
Keep your hand up if you want to know how to deal with it.
“I sign up
for a lot of things too.”
In the beginning I was searching for information, and I had time to read. The internet was new, I was experimenting, and I signed up. Boy-oh-boy-oh-boy did I sign up. When I identified and realized the amount of time I spent sorting through and archiving (note: not reading, sorting and archiving) 93 email subscriptions I set up five gmail accounts with categories for the types of information, and over a month I unsubscribed and resubscribed to each one - confident in the knowledge that I could quickly go to that account and search to find the information I'd missed.
- Since that time I've never opened one of those accounts.
- But I did free the time I had been spending sorting.
- And the knowledge that I could easily find what I'd missed when I did have the time to read it comforted me.
Things are a bit different now. I'll search for something, see a download, and the price of admission is my email address. Then they spam me. Sort of. Because, after all, I was interested -- before I knew their product wasn't a fit for me, or I wasn't ready yet, or I couldn't afford them.
“Then the heavens opened and I found out about Unroll.me”
Unroll.me looks at my email and makes a list of all the subscriptions.
Then I get to select
- Roll up,
- Unsubscribe, or
- Keep in inbox.
The decision isn't final, it's easy to change my mind
Now, each morning there's one email with all of the day's subscriptions.
The thumbnail for each subscription makes it easy to see which I want to read. (Not that many.) To read I just click the image and it expands to full size. I can see everything, and the links work.
At the top, in the blue bar, there's a notification for new choices to be made.
And if I decide that something's gotta go or should be popping up right in front of my face, changing my original decision is simple.
So when Hester, a past client, who I think may do business with me again, starts sending out a weekly broadcast for her products, I just roll her up. She never knows. I don't have to see the SPAM. She thinks I like her. That's good for me.
And when Hiram, who I've never met, adds me to his "Are you ready yet? Are you ready yet?" list, I just click unsubscribe. Done. In one. So easy.
In real life I don't look at every day's Rollup. Often a few days, or a few weeks go by, then I archive all of them. When I do open one, and see something I'd like to follow through on, I leave it in my inbox . . . but, more often than not, a few weeks or months later it gets archived too, because it just wasn't that valuable to me.
Look at Daphne's emails. I want those - and I don't read them when they come in, either.
The reality is, we're all overloaded.
If this tool helps you stay comfortable with the people you don't want to offend and releases you from the time consuming task of sorting an overflowing inbox, good!
You can even add me to your newsletter if that's your way to say thank you. <grin>
Photo courtesy of Eugene Kim
Spending all day at coffee might be fun - but it won't make any money. Use this system to set an end time.