Unsubscribe and Thrive: A Practical Approach to Email Minimalism
“Where did all these email subscriptions come from? I don’t even remember signing up for most of these!”
Can you relate? It’s easy to get overloaded in a sea of promotional emails, newsletters you never read, and updates that only add to your digital stress. Without taking intentional steps to prevent the influx, just like physical belongings, digital clutter has a tendency to accumulate.
In November of 2024, I finally decided I’d had enough and that I was ready to drastically decrease the number of email subscriptions I was getting. Although it seemed easier and quicker to just delete emails as they came in, I knew that in order to make a significant impact, I’d need to take the time to unsubscribe instead of just deleting. I decided to keep a record of my efforts because I was curious about how many subscriptions I had, and because I wanted to write about my experience. In this blog, I’ll share my results and the practical steps I took in hopes that it can help you achieve a more manageable inbox.
The Experiment Begins
Beginning on December 1st, 2024, I started looking carefully at each email delivered to both of my inboxes. I had two different email addresses at the time, and I was trying to convert to using one email address for everything, so this was a good time to make that change as well. I kept records for both email addresses for the entire months of December 2024 and January of 2025. I made a list of the email subscriptions that I unsubscribed to, as well as those I wanted to continue to receive. In some cases, for the email subscriptions I wanted to continue to receive, I needed to unsubscribe from one address and subscribe from the other. The overall process was a bit complicated and time-consuming, but it was well worth the time invested. My email inbox is so much easier to handle now.
When making a decision about which subscriptions to continue to receive and which to unsubscribe to, I asked myself the following questions:
How and when did I begin to get these emails?
How often do I read them?
Would I miss them if I unsubscribed?
Are they adding value to my life?
My Numbers
The number of emails I unsubscribed from was much higher than I anticipated. During that two month time period, I unsubscribed from a total of 142 email newsletters. I chose to remain subscribed to 24 newsletters, only 7% of my original number.
Since the end of January 2025, I continue to ruthlessly unsubscribe. New email newsletters pop up all the time, most of which I never chose to receive. For example, if I order from an online company and have to provide my email address, I was automatically added to their newsletter, even if I hadn’t indicated a desire to get it. Many times, I had no idea how a company got my email address in the first place.
Although this two month effort was very helpful, it didn’t take me long to realize that unsubscribing is an ongoing process. When I receive a new newsletter, even though it seems easier to just quickly delete the email, I try to take the additional second or two to unsubscribe so that I won’t be back in the same situation anytime soon.
One Click Unsubscribe (with a Caveat)
Unsubscribing isn’t a difficult process. Usually, it requires only a single click. In fact, with email programs like Gmail, unsubscribing doesn’t even require opening the email because the email program contains a feature embedded directly within the email interface that lets subscribers instantly opt out of mailing lists with a single click. In addition, the one-click unsubscribe rule is part of the CAN-SPAM Act, a federal law that regulates commercial email, requiring senders to provide recipients with a clear and easy way to opt-out of future emails with a single action. But there’s a caveat. Have you ever unsubscribed from an email list, only to continue receiving emails from this same company? How does that happen? Many businesses have multiple email lists. If you unsubscribe, you may have only unsubscribed from the specific email list that email was associated with instead of unsubscribing from all of their email lists. For instance, you may have unsubscribed from a company’s Daily Deals newsletter but still be signed up for the Monthly Updates newsletter. If a business has multiple email newsletters, you’ll have to go to the next step to be sure you unsubscribe from every newsletter. Then you’ll probably be asked why you’re unsubscribing. Then they may ask you if you’re sure about it. Feel free to ignore these last questions. Just get out of there. Now It’s Your Turn
Ready to take control of your email? Take time to unsubscribe. I promise it will be time well-spent.
What If Your Inbox is Totally Out of Control?
If your email inbox is so full that you feel hopeless or if you need more help getting your email under control, I’ve got more helpful tips in my article, “Drowning in Email? Three Tips to Tame Your Inbox,” which you can find on my website at this link.