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Dear Miriam,
Between the made-up promotional holidays of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, my inbox has been completely overwhelmed this week and even the small amount of social media I still look at has been taken over. I’m tempted to write to every company, charity, school, and business who has me on their list not just to unsubscribe and unfollow but to tell them that their plans for “user engagement” backfired spectacularly. Do you have any more productive solutions for managing this situation?
Signed,
Unsubscribe Wednesday
Dear Unsubscribe,
An overwhelming number of entities are vying for your eyeballs, and the more crowded the field gets, the more messages are needed to break through to you. So what used to be one Black Friday email has become multiple emails every day leading up to Black Friday, plus some more afterwards in case you missed the day itself. And sure, multiply that by every coffee shop you’ve ever visited, every online retailer where you’ve ever made a purchase, and every worthwhile institution where you’ve ever given $36, and your inbox is going to be uncomfortably crowded. But take a deep breath. The week is almost over.
Use this as an opportunity to unsubscribe from the emails you truly don’t care about. If you’re never going to shop at a particular store again no matter how great the deal, then you don’t need to get their emails. If you find a particular marketing campaign so obnoxious that you’re turned off from the cause as a result, go ahead and remove yourself from the list. If there’s a store or institution or hair salon or food truck that you’ll easily be able to find again if you need them, get them out of your inbox. But don’t take the current state of online marketing out on the innocent people checking the inboxes, and don’t waste more energy on this endeavor than its worth.
Set aside an hour this week, maybe with some calming music and a cup of tea, and dedicate yourself to cleaning up your subscriptions. Set a timer and hold yourself to stopping after a reasonable amount of time – enough to be productive but not so much as to suck away your will to function in society. You don’t need to unsubscribe to everything, either, as long as you make sure the right emails are categorized as “Promotions,” or if you take the time to set up other effective filters. After your hour is up, make calendar events for next Thanksgiving week that say “Don’t Check Email” Thursday-Tuesday. Then reserve an hour with yourself on that Wednesday (Dec. 2, 2026) to do another round of inbox management.
You are experiencing something annoying! But do try to keep it in perspective. Each email is not a personal affront, and you have the power to delete or even just not to look. But before you delete each and every one, is it possible that you actually do have some shopping to do? Might you learn about a deal that could save you some money for a thing you actually need or want to give to someone? Are there any causes you actually would like to support before the end of the year, especially knowing the dire financial situations of many nonprofits and the people they serve? Could all of this serve as a reminder about the less email-heavy non-holiday of “Small Business Saturday” and prompt you to go out and support some local businesses who aren’t spamming you? If your answer is still no to all of these, go back a paragraph, minimize your exposure, and wait a few more days until this passes (only to be replaced by Happy Holidays messages, then Happy New Year, and so on, forever).
Be well,
Miriam