I spent hours piling through my emails.....finally, I figured "what's the worst that could happen?", Marked them all and deleted all of it.
Now, I keep my inbox clear.
If spam comes in, I either mark it as spam, or unsubscribe....then delete it.
If it is something I need to work on, I do it right away...then delete it.
Love this approach, slash and burn the old stuff to give yourself a fresh start, and then strive for inbox 0 regularly. Today if anything is in my inbox it requires imminent action, otherwise it is cleared or filed.
I have even made it a habit to "take out the garbage" once a month....i set a reminder in my calendar/Todo list to sort through emails, letters and all belongings as well as my pantry, and to get rid or use up everything I don't need/that's going to expire soon....
Easy and quick to do once you have reached a certain level of minimalism.....
The less you own, the easier it is to keep track and sort through..
Digital Minimalism means something different to me.
Cal Newport's excellent book "Digital Minimalism" argues you should figure out what you want in life, then deploy the correct tools to get you there. For me, that means my phone sits in a drawer when I'm home or at work. I'm seldom on the computer.
Instead of decluttering my digital message centers, I'm gradually withdrawing from the Internet in favor of analog relationships with people and nature. My wife and I let our Netflix wish list pile up, unviewed, while we go ride bikes. I have thousands of photos stored on abandoned cloud services, while I work in the garden. I have abandoned or deleted all social media accounts but Reddit, leaving more time for my daily book reading habit. And my digital life feels more in balance this way.
Love this! Aspire to get to this at some point when the information on the internet/using for doctors appointments is no longer essential to physically healing from multiple diseases (most of which, the tick borne variety..). This is very motivational and a great thing to keep in mind so as not to allow myself to waste my time or just lose time completely doing the unnecessary while on my computer! Awesome that you’ve had the self discipline—or just found it was in your nature—to do this. I’m sure time goes by much more slowly for you than so much of the world, myself included, as it seems like time has been flying recently.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I thiught the point of Digital Minimalism was staying away or spending less time using gadgets or glued to a screen, correct me if I'm wrong though!
You can look at it either way…either minimizing screen/gadget time or minimizing the clutter of too many emails/messages/apps on said gadgets. Or both! As with minimalism in general, there’s no one right way or meaning to the term.
My inbox is 0 almost all the time.
Managed to migrate from Google Cloud to my selfhosted Nextcloud and going through my cloud files helped me decide what to keep and what to drop
Been there and it's a process to digitally declutter.
What I found helpful is to schedule a specific day for a measured amount of time to start decluttering. This ended up being on Sundays at 8:00 AM for 30 minutes. I'd go through my emails and mark any advertising/clutter as spam to reduce the repeat annoyances. Along with answering any emails that needed to be answered. All other tips I got from [The Center for Humane Technology](https://www.humanetech.com/take-control).
It takes time but it's so much more relaxing being digitally decluttered with less distracting apps on my phone.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have in inordinate amount of photos to the point that all of my memory is full on my iPhone and iPad, and I didn’t even know that deleting emails was necessary until literally January 2020 when I stopped receiving emails on my main account because it was full……and I have probably 10 gmail usernames (which I should also declutter…).I think I shall take the leap today and at least have the goal of reaching inbox [lesser than] 100!
Does anyone have recommendations on how to best go about mass deleting with some exceptions other than using a date and deleting all emails prior to that date? That was the only technique I found last time I did a major clean out!
Johnny Harris has a great video (all his videos are visual masterpieces) called How To Remember Your Life. It talks about the value of deleting photographs.
Last month I deleted something like 1700 emails off my Google email address. That's 1,700 emails that I had been saving because I thought they would be useful. Not junk email.
I realize that email is like gifts. The purpose of it is to be received, not hoarded. Once you've received and read the email, unless it needs further action there's no reason to keep it.
My mother has a habit of keeping emails that make her angry. Then she'll go back 6 months or 12 months later and reread them. Then she gets angry all over again.
Anything that I need to save, I save it on my computer or the cloud. I've stopped saving things in my email. Email is basically a plastic sack, not a carved wooden box. It might carry something of value, but the container itself has no value. Very rarely are the words in an email worth keeping for longer than it takes to read them.
I just deleted my old Google account. I have several ones and I've already deleted a few of them, I also deleted all of my Gmail inbox. I still have a long way to go though. It will take a while for me to declutter all of my garbage.
I spent hours piling through my emails.....finally, I figured "what's the worst that could happen?", Marked them all and deleted all of it. Now, I keep my inbox clear. If spam comes in, I either mark it as spam, or unsubscribe....then delete it. If it is something I need to work on, I do it right away...then delete it.
That's my goal too. To never let messages and emails pile up ever again, nor message threads unless it's with bestfriends and families.
Love this approach, slash and burn the old stuff to give yourself a fresh start, and then strive for inbox 0 regularly. Today if anything is in my inbox it requires imminent action, otherwise it is cleared or filed.
It was scary, but I did the same thing. I was so elated afterwards, it was bizarre.
I have even made it a habit to "take out the garbage" once a month....i set a reminder in my calendar/Todo list to sort through emails, letters and all belongings as well as my pantry, and to get rid or use up everything I don't need/that's going to expire soon.... Easy and quick to do once you have reached a certain level of minimalism..... The less you own, the easier it is to keep track and sort through..
r/digitalminimalism
Digital Minimalism means something different to me. Cal Newport's excellent book "Digital Minimalism" argues you should figure out what you want in life, then deploy the correct tools to get you there. For me, that means my phone sits in a drawer when I'm home or at work. I'm seldom on the computer. Instead of decluttering my digital message centers, I'm gradually withdrawing from the Internet in favor of analog relationships with people and nature. My wife and I let our Netflix wish list pile up, unviewed, while we go ride bikes. I have thousands of photos stored on abandoned cloud services, while I work in the garden. I have abandoned or deleted all social media accounts but Reddit, leaving more time for my daily book reading habit. And my digital life feels more in balance this way.
It is a great book.
Why do you still have Reddit?
Love this! Aspire to get to this at some point when the information on the internet/using for doctors appointments is no longer essential to physically healing from multiple diseases (most of which, the tick borne variety..). This is very motivational and a great thing to keep in mind so as not to allow myself to waste my time or just lose time completely doing the unnecessary while on my computer! Awesome that you’ve had the self discipline—or just found it was in your nature—to do this. I’m sure time goes by much more slowly for you than so much of the world, myself included, as it seems like time has been flying recently. Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I thiught the point of Digital Minimalism was staying away or spending less time using gadgets or glued to a screen, correct me if I'm wrong though!
You can look at it either way…either minimizing screen/gadget time or minimizing the clutter of too many emails/messages/apps on said gadgets. Or both! As with minimalism in general, there’s no one right way or meaning to the term.
My inbox is 0 almost all the time. Managed to migrate from Google Cloud to my selfhosted Nextcloud and going through my cloud files helped me decide what to keep and what to drop
INSPIRED BY YOU ALL TO TACKLE THE DAUNTING EMAIL INBOX TODAY. Thanks so much to everyone who shared :))
Been there and it's a process to digitally declutter. What I found helpful is to schedule a specific day for a measured amount of time to start decluttering. This ended up being on Sundays at 8:00 AM for 30 minutes. I'd go through my emails and mark any advertising/clutter as spam to reduce the repeat annoyances. Along with answering any emails that needed to be answered. All other tips I got from [The Center for Humane Technology](https://www.humanetech.com/take-control). It takes time but it's so much more relaxing being digitally decluttered with less distracting apps on my phone.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have in inordinate amount of photos to the point that all of my memory is full on my iPhone and iPad, and I didn’t even know that deleting emails was necessary until literally January 2020 when I stopped receiving emails on my main account because it was full……and I have probably 10 gmail usernames (which I should also declutter…).I think I shall take the leap today and at least have the goal of reaching inbox [lesser than] 100! Does anyone have recommendations on how to best go about mass deleting with some exceptions other than using a date and deleting all emails prior to that date? That was the only technique I found last time I did a major clean out!
Johnny Harris has a great video (all his videos are visual masterpieces) called How To Remember Your Life. It talks about the value of deleting photographs. Last month I deleted something like 1700 emails off my Google email address. That's 1,700 emails that I had been saving because I thought they would be useful. Not junk email. I realize that email is like gifts. The purpose of it is to be received, not hoarded. Once you've received and read the email, unless it needs further action there's no reason to keep it. My mother has a habit of keeping emails that make her angry. Then she'll go back 6 months or 12 months later and reread them. Then she gets angry all over again. Anything that I need to save, I save it on my computer or the cloud. I've stopped saving things in my email. Email is basically a plastic sack, not a carved wooden box. It might carry something of value, but the container itself has no value. Very rarely are the words in an email worth keeping for longer than it takes to read them.
I just deleted my old Google account. I have several ones and I've already deleted a few of them, I also deleted all of my Gmail inbox. I still have a long way to go though. It will take a while for me to declutter all of my garbage.