How to save 30.5 hours per year with a simple search

If you’re like me you love simple hacks to save a lot of time. In this post you will learn how I saved almost a work week of time in just a few minutes.

You’ve probably noticed that over time your email inbox has been invaded by dozens and dozens of bulk mailing lists. That Groupon deal you got last summer, the shirt you bought last Christmas and forgot to uncheck “add me to your mailing list”, and the 20 new services you signed up for to reserve your screen name even though you don’t plan on using it. Here’s how to fix it simply and easily:

Step 1: Search “unsubscribe” in your email client

At the bottom of every email that you receive from a bulk list there is a link that says “unsubscribe” at the bottom. The CAN-SPAM act requires that any commercial email have this type of option.

Step 2: Go through the list, scroll to the bottom of the email, and click “unsubscribe” liberally

You probably have 30-40 email lists that you’ve some how been signed up for. There are marketing people being paid by each of these companies to look at the analytics for the % of people who’ve opened the email and clicked through. So these things are literally being designed to interrupt you at the days and times you’re most likely to get distracted.

Step 3: Add a recurring 30 minute event to your calendar for every 3 months called “Unsubscribe time”

If you do this simple action you’ll save 5 minutes of waisted email time per day for a year adding up to over 30 hours each year.

If you like this idea, I’d really appreciate it if you shared it—there are some share buttons on the side of this post.

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