Marie Kondo and the Information Deluge

Marie Kondo is a best-selling author and media star who has built her brand as a tidying expert. She recommends organizing your life and your living space by discarding everything that does not bring you joy, then organizing what is left so that it can be easily accessed and used. Her message has resonated with people, with Time magazine naming her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Marie’s contention is that clutter in our everyday surroundings is keeping us from what would give us joy. Culturally, she is coming from a traditional Japanese esthetic, touting the simplicity, elegance, and order that can be found in the austere gardens of Zen temples in Japan. This contrasts with American culture, which is derived from the rich and ornate esthetic of Renaissance Europe.

I probably could benefit from a strong dose of Kondo-style decluttering. My house is full of stuff that has been accumulating for decades. Some of it, I don’t even remember where I got it, or why. However, all this stuff that is spilling out of closets or sitting on the floor of rooms whose closets are full, is not my major problem. I can deal with that kind of clutter. And who knows, I might find a use for some of this stuff someday. What bothers me and keeps me from my joy is the clutter in my email inbox.

The thing about email is that there might actually be an important message in there somewhere, buried among all the messages that are not really important. Of course, there is a lot of spam. But the worst time waster is not the spam, which is quickly and easily deleted. The problem is with messages from news sources and email lists that I once opted into. The content of these messages is still of interest to me, but there is way too much of it. If I were to read all the messages that I receive every day that were of at least moderate interest to me, I would not have time to do anything else. I wouldn’t even be able to take the time to write articles such as this one.

What I need is a way to declutter my inbox. The logical way to do this is to unsubscribe from all the lists that are sending me messages that do not bring me joy. Unfortunately, regardless of how many lists I unsubscribe from, the number of messages I receive daily does not seem to diminish. New message sources crop up continually. In the task of tidying up my inbox, I feel like I am slogging on a treadmill, continually unsubscribing, but never driving incoming messages down to the ones that truly bring me joy.

Perhaps it is time for me to go cold turkey. What would happen if I just closed my inbox for good. Would that bring me joy? I suspect not. It would bring major anxiety instead. The pain of withdrawal would be intense. I would always fear that I was missing something important, such as that message from NASA saying that my application into the astronaut program had been approved, giving me instructions for showing up in Houston to be fitted for my space suit.

I could use a little help here, Marie. Do you declutter inboxes?

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