Do you find that an email address you own gets more junk than mail and you really didn’t plan it that way?  Start tackling it one day at a time.  Starting today, take action on at least 5 of the items that come into your email box. Your email system should mimic that of your snail mail system…wait what you don’t have a snail mail system?  Well that’s a discussion for another day ☺.  Today, I am talking specifically about those items that come into your email box that fall into the trash category.  You know the items you typically skip over or just delete.  Here are a few steps you can take to tackle the extra noise of your email box:<!--more-->
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	<li><strong>Blog emails/newsletters</strong> - You know the emails that you get after you subscribe or like a particular blog because you want to know the next time the person posts. I do this, but typically I only subscribe via email to blogs that I really really like that don’t have an alternate way to subscribe (i.e., twitter, facebook or google+).  I prefer that way of subscribing because I can choose to veg out and read their posts at one time and I don’t feel like I lose the information in the noise of other emails.  I also learned that those I get email subscriptions to eventually become like that magazine or newspaper you subscribe to but never read.  To combat this I would say first determine if maybe the blog owner has added an additional way to subscribe since you first discovered them.  Search for the blog on the various social media platforms and if they have one and are feeding their blog posts to it, join that way and unsubscribe from the email list.  If not, you have to decide if the email is worth its square footage in your inbox.  If the decision is yes but you don’t read them right away, set up a folder and move the emails into this folder until you have time to read them.  This way you are containing them outside of your inbox and subsequently turning the volume down on the noise.  You can also postpone the decision to delete it until after you have finished going through your inbox.  You may find that after the declutter you actually see the emails and start reading them.</li>
	<li><strong>More than what you bargained for - </strong>Some companies mix in their advertisements for sales with their blog posts and other information. You may just be interested in the blog posts and not all the other promotional materials.  Click on the unsubscribe button and see if they have an option to unsubscribe from certain parts of their mailings.  Larger companies or those that have many different publications tend to have this option, if not again you have to decide what is more important to you - getting the info you are waiting for or the junk.  If you do want the information, see if there is specific wording for those that you don’t like and create a rule that automatically deletes it upon arrival.  I know Outlook does this, I haven’t explored it in other mail systems.</li>
	<li><strong>Social media alerts</strong> - do you really use these alerts? Many of the social media sites have numerous options for notifying/alerting you of activity on your account.  I recommend you evaluate the ones you actually look at and eliminate all the extra noise from your email box.</li>
	<li><strong>Add on store deals</strong> - from time to time companies will sell your information to other companies and/or they have so many subsidiaries that when you subscribe to one list all the others get it (it’s in the fine print). Just unsubscribe from those “extra” lists and remember next time to read the fine print.  It is also ok to tell the store no when they ask you for an email address, they usually suggest you subscribe for an additional discount or to receive information about sales...which adds you to all their mailing lists.  Well, I suggest you connect with their text, twitter, facebook or google+ feeds for that information instead OR set up a promotional only email account so when companies ask you for that information you give that email address instead.  This will help you know where to go to search for current deals and you know anything older than a week or two can be automatically deleted because it is more than likely old news anyway.</li>
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If you found this information helpful, please comment and let me know.  Make sure to join us on our various social media platforms so you don't miss our next post.  Until then, have a happy day!

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