Life Hack – Manage Your Shopping Emails
Shopping Emails are like little golden tickets for your favorite stores. Do you know when you buy stuff in stores these days, they no longer ask for your phone number. Instead, they’ve started asking for your Email address. Gotta love marketing. If they can’t get to you one way, they’ll find another.
However, keep in mind that you have a choice. My standard answer to either question is to very pleasantly say “I’m sorry, I don’t give that out”. It usually catches them by surprise and they blink for a moment, but then they just say OK and complete the transaction.
However, there ARE benefits to getting on that list – it does give you access to a lot of special offers and online-only coupons. The downside to this is that you have a constant stream of temptation showing up in your inbox every day – LOTS of temptation. It can lead to an online shopping addiction. Those little shopping Emails are pretty prolific. I probably get 20 or more of them a day. Most Email you every day – #annoying
How to Manage Your Shopping Emails
I buy online a lot, so just about everyone in town has MY Email. However, I have a little scheme that allows me to reap the benefit of having all those sales and coupons on hand without having to struggle with that daily temptation of all those shopping Emails. I let my Email filters take care of it for me. That’s a great way how to overcome shopping addiction right there.
There are two ways you can do this. First, you can set up a specific Email address that you only use for shopping. Something like AdriansShops@gmail.com. Then you only check it when you’re ready to go shopping. Or to simplify things, you’d use your regular Email and just redirect the messages to a specific folder. That’s what I do.
I’m not sure how it works in every type of Email, but in Gmail, it’s really easy to set up. Here’s what you can do. Every time you get a new Email series, just select “Filter Messages like These”. Then just set it to go to your Shopping folder and click “Skip the Inbox”. Or just unsubscribe.
I love Gmail. I have a whole post on how to tame your overflowing inbox using filters like these. It really helps to keep on top of your Email, especially if you are running a blog or a business.
Then I just look in my Shopping folder every week or so to prune my shopping Emails. I delete everything over a month old because most of the specials are over by then. It’s like my own private little piggy bank. But the difference is, I have a little jingle in the piggy bank because I’m not constantly tempted to buy things I don’t really need.
Check out my post on how excessive online shopping can lead to excessive clutter problems as well. Did you know that the average American house has 300,000 separate items in it? Yikes! That is a LOT of stuff to manage and if you have a shopping addiction, you are just adding to that total. Make another choice!
What tips do you have to share about how to keep your online shopping under control? I’d love to hear them as overshopping has been a lifelong problem for me. I probably blew through $5,000 or more before I finally got it under control.
Here are a few other posts about how to manage your Email
How to Conquer your Email Overload
7 Tips to Make Gmail WORK for You
True Confessions of an Email HOARDER
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I need to do something like this. I usually give out an email that I am planning on getting rid of, but once it’s gone, I will need another option. But the reason why I am getting rid of it is because I get so much spam on there.
Always looking for ways to filter and organize my 6 e-mail addresses! Thanks Adrian.