Open Question 002

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Recently Minnow Park and I were talking about how one of the challenges in being part of the Internet’s raddest writing collective is how hard it is to keep up with everyone’s work!

This is increasingly true as more and more writers join Substack, which emails subscribers every time a writer creates a new post. As I said to Minnow, I am drowning in newsletters! What do I do???

Since Minnow is a rational, organized person, he has created a great system that he generously shared with me.

For those of you who use Gmail, here’s his process in case it is helpful:

• Do a search in Gmail for the word “unsubscribe” (in quotes)

• This gives a result of all emails that are sent as a newsletter (including promotional emails from brands)

• Click “Create Filter” and check off:

  • “Skip the Inbox (Archive it)”

  • “Apply the Label” (and name it what you like e.g. “Newsletters”)

• Click “Create Filter”

Says Minnow, “This keeps my inbox free of all emails other than those from real people. I can go into that label (in Gmail’s navigation) and read emails when I have time to, rather than as they come in.”

Voila! A saner inbox already!

Mind you, this is just one strategy. There are so many ways to approach having multiple subscriptions to writers we like.

Which leads me to our Open Question this week:

How do you keep up with all the newsletters/Substacks/blogs/etc. and maintain your sanity? Do you have a system or guiding principle you adhere to?

Share your thoughts below and let’s see if we can help each other.