If you’ve been receiving my emails for a while, you know that I send an email once a week. I doubt you’re setting your clock by this, but in the event that you are, I have some news to share…
I’m going to be reducing the amount of email I send.
I’m not sure if that announcement resulted in a fist pump of joy (I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t want less email??) or a classic sad emoji face 😭as you anticipated not receiving my witty, thoughtful remarks every week.
Here’s the deal…
I’ve spent much of my entrepreneur life doing the “right” thing. This included sending weekly emails, because I was told, “You need to be consistent! Your audience needs to hear from you at least once per week!!”
I watched as many of my fellow content creators moved from sending weekly emails to sending TWICE WEEKLY emails. This made me nervous… Should I be sending even more emails? I’m already struggling to send something once per week!
I also noticed that as they increased the number of emails they sent me, I decreased the number of emails I opened from them. It started to feel like noise in my inbox. I started to value the (very few) creators who only sent me emails every other week, or just once per month. When their emails arrived, I thought, “Wow! I really need to pay attention here! It must be important!”
This shouldn’t be a surprise to someone who calls herself a minimalist. Email—like sweaters, ping pong rackets, and coffee mugs—follows the “less is more” principle.
The less we have of something, the more we value it.
Along the same lines… The less email I send you, the more value I can put into it.
I have a small confession… Much of the email I send to you is not original. Because I’ve tried to “be consistent” and post every week, I tend to recycle old content that I wrote years ago. There’s nothing wrong with this. Some of that old stuff is really good! But I’m a person who actually likes to write. There’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting down to a blank screen and just seeing what comes.
I enjoy the creative process. I love going on a walk with my dog and turning an idea over in my mind, forming it into something I will eventually write. I love feeling arrested by a phrase or idea and asking myself, “How could I turn that into a post?” This is part of who I am. And when I’m “cranking out content” every week it cheapens my creativity. It robs me of my art. And I’m kinda done doing that.
So my plan is to send you emails every other week. Most of this will be original content, but when the mood strikes—or the writer’s block hits—I may resurrect an “oldie but goodie” blog from the archives.
I’m also going to reduce my social media posting to once/week. I used to exhaust myself by posting on social media four times per week. I then reduced that to two times per week, and now I’m feeling like even that is too much. So if you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn know that you’ll still hear from me. Just a bit less. (I hope you use the extra time you’re not reading my posts to interact with real people in the real world! This is way more fun than social media!)
What about when I’m promoting something exciting?
When I’m offering free challenges, classes, or promoting events that I think are really cool, you’ll probably hear from me more frequently. I haven’t quite figured out how that will go, but I’m confident that I can still let you know about fun and helpful stuff without blowing up your inbox.
Alright, friends! This minimalist is going to take her own advice and apply some “less is more” to her content creation.
I’d love to know… Did anything in this post inspire you to “do less” in some area of your life? I’d love for you to email me personally at [email protected] and let me know! (And hey, don’t worry about sending me too much email. I can never get enough thoughtful responses from my readers! I love hearing from all of you!)
