Over the years I’ve held different roles and signed up with multiple relevant vendors, conferences, and newsletters. This created a steady stream of potentially useful information.
Now that I work in an unrelated area, the emails are still coming in. I either ignored or deleted them for a long time. Deleting was especially nice. You get a little “happy juice” moment in your brain when you shorten your inbox list quickly.
A few months ago I realized that these were simply distractions. They aren’t relevant. I’m not gaining anything by even seeing the subject line. The sender thinks I’m still a good audience member when I’m not.
Remembering what Andy Stanley says — “What distracts us is never as important as what we’re being distracted from” — I just unsubscribe from each mailing list as they come in. Takes 30-60 seconds for each, which is an investment in reduced distraction going forward.
Distractions come in many forms. What can you do to “unsubscribe” from no-longer-relevant signals in your work environment?
