One New Year's "resolution" I have already started work on---paring down the number of e-mails I receive. For the life of me, I have no idea how I have ended up on so many people's subscription lists. But enough is enough, and the purge has begun!Since Sunday, I think I have unsubscribed from at least sixty e-mail lists: retail, travel, charity, and recipe newsletters and special offers---adios! And now every time a new piece of junk pops up in my inbox, I immediately open the e-mail and remove myself from future solicitations.
Which is not to say I won't miss a couple of interesting reads in the coming year. But I would rather not have to scroll through the thirty, forty, fifty e-mails I have been receiving every day just to find the one or two that may be useful. And the "follow-up" folder where I have been stashing these almost-always unread e-mails for when I'd have more time (and you know that time NEVER comes), well that's being deleted, too.
I am applying the same principle to my Facebook lists as well. Friends and groups who post thoughtful and informative updates will stay active in my News Feed, but those who post just for the sake of posting or to push certain agendas are being hidden from my daily reading.
In general these days I find the Internet overwhelming. Of course there is limitless useful and thoroughly readable material available to keep my eyes strained to perpetuity, but when is enough enough? I feel like I've reached data overload. Thus, all the pages I bookmarked with the intent of revisiting one day (but again NEVER do)? Deleted. "Dusty" Firefox folders full of expired hyperlinks? Deleted. My lists of favorite blogs culled and those remaining organized by subject.
So far, I am liking my less-cluttered virtual world. It's a refreshing feeling to log on to a clean desktop and find no pressing matters in my e-mail inbox. But more importantly, my ultimate goal is to free up time for more pleasurable pursuits in 2010---more time for crafting and writing and gardening, for hanging out with the family, for puttering and letting my brain recharge. My days of data hoarding are being left behind with the decade, and I feel great! :-)
