Newsletter overload!

I have enjoyed receiving different newsletters over the years from various business people regarding different topics. During the last six months, the number of newsletters has steadily increased, as in I receive over 10 a day, as people have sent me referral after referral for a new and exciting newsletter they think I should read.

While I have enjoyed some tremendously (I sit next to my computer waiting for them to come in. OK, not really sitting there waiting, but will open them immediately when they do come in), there are others that I have read through and tried to enjoy, but they just were doing nothing for me. Some cover topics I really want to know about and some of the others cover topics that just don't interest me now or anymore. Most of the time I have just been forwarding the newsletters I like and hoping that I can read them at some point in the future.

Today was my breaking point! Instead of just deleting the newsletters I don't want to read anymore as usual, I decided to take a stand. I started to unsubscribe myself from the newsletters. As of last count, I unsubscribed from six of them. The list will continue to dwindle as I continue to decide which ones are helpful and which ones are a waste of my time.

For the ones that I like, I have been taking the main points and compiling them into a document for future reading. For those newsletter where the article is a long one, but one that I enjoy, I am holding on to those. I have a Yahoo account and folders set up within the account where the newsletters go. This has helped me to cut down on the ones I save and the ones I hit the delete button on.

While it is always good to educate yourself and learn from others, there comes a time when too much information will put your brain into overload and then nothing makes sense. You need to figure out which newsletters work for you and focus on the material contained inside each one specifically when it comes in. If it is something you enjoyed and may come in handy at a future date, then you can save it.

From this point forward, I am going to be spending the next few weeks weeding through hundreds of newsletters that I have not had the chance to read yet. I will be opening all of the newsletters I want to read each time they come in and read them on the spot. I will either put the information in my document or forward it for future reference. I refuse to be a victim of newsletters anymore!