I used to be on every mailing list imaginable. Some were health newsletters, spirituality newsletters, copywriting newsletters, marketing newsletters.
Some were industry specific (music business, music making, music marketing) that broke up into further segmented newsletters (music marketing online, building a studio, scoring for film, reaching pop music fans).
As I kept adding areas of business and interest to my life, I'd add more and more newsletters, until I was receiving hundreds of emails a day (most of which I never had time to even open!).
Add to this the blogs I started trying to keep up on, the groups and programs I was joining, and the ever-forgotten REAL LIFE time away from the computer, and welcome OVERWHELM.
Does this sound familiar? It seems like I know more and more business (and non-business) people being completely bombarded by their self-imposed information sources online.
The fact is, we just don't have enough time in a day to read all of this information AND put any of it to use.
I recommend taking a good look at what you're reading and what you're not. Bookmark the sites for the things you're not reading (so you can search them if or when you ever need to), but UNSUBSCRIBE. The ones you are making the time to keep up with and put into action, keep, but schedule your time to read them. If you miss a day, delete it. Don't let it keep building up in your inbox, because you know you're not going to have time to go back to it.
I have a very small list of my most trusted resources in each field that I like to keep up with. Everything else, unfortunately, goes to the 'when I need it' bookmark file. It doesn't mean that they don't have great info, it just means my focus is elsewhere.
Here are a few of my favorites, all free!
- For music business, the MusicThoughts Yahoogroup. It's a pretty steady stream of both resources and discussion.
- For general business, BusinessKnowHow.com.
- For the voice industry, Vox Daily.
I also belong to one coaching program and one music business group, both of which I pay a fee for. Along with the couple of lead services that I also pay a subscription fee for, I made sure these resources offered a little more bang for my buck than other free sites that might offer the same sort of thing. I would recommend keeping these pay groups to a minimum as well, so you can invest the most time in them to get the most return.
Ask yourself what your best resources are (and why they're worth the time), and get control of your inbox! Feel free to post in the comments your favorites! More...
