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Your email inbox is one of your most important pieces of real estate. Does it reflect your values and what you should be caring about?

The email hit my inbox at 11:32am.

“Holiday Happy Hour Just Got 10% Better.”

I know what you’re probably thinking: “Well, Jon, you don’t drink anymore. So that’s an odd or at least irrelevant email to get.”

You’d be right. However, that’s only part of what stood out to me.

See, the email came from my favorite local pizza place. This restaurant is amazing. It has great salads. Amazing wings. But all of that pales in comparison to the pizza. My Lord, the pizza.

My favorite is the prosciutto pie. Here’s what comes on it: prosuitto pronto panino, medjool dates, date sauce, pistachio, arugula, house ricotta, and parmesan balsamic. The local trick, though, is to add caramelized onions. With that addition, each bite explodes in your mouth with flavor. The dollops of ricotta cheese take on a sour cream consistency, and the sweetness of the dates and onions combines to form delectable sauce-like pockets on the top that drip down into the back of your throat.

Hungry yet?

An image of the actual ad. You can see my favorite pizza in the upper left.

But as I took a few moments to daydream about the pizza, a thought started rising like soft dough in my mind: “Why am I getting emails from my favorite pizza place?” And then that really gave way to this thought: “Why am I giving my time, attention, and valuable email real estate to a pizza place?”

Like I said, I do really enjoy this restaurant. But enough to let them email me every few days? No. And yet that’s what I’ve been allowing them to do for over a year. It’s more than a little odd when you think about it.

But here’s the reality; most of our inboxes are flooded with a host of “pizza places;” that is, messages from companies that we are giving priority to that we shouldn’t really. Where else can you find a call to join what Jesus is doing in your neighborhood church next to an ad for 20% off leggings?

Friend, there are plenty of ways to evaluate what you are letting be important and rule your life. I think your email inbox is one of them. Ask yourself this question: What does my email inbox say about my priorities?

I’d like to think that this email that you’re reading right now is reflection of the good things you value. Hopefully I’m giving you something worth while. I’m making you think. And God is using what I say to speak to you.

But what else are you letting in? What else are you allowing to steal your attention? As someone who consults businesses, entrepreneurs, and non-profits on digital media, I can tell you that your email inbox is one of the most important pieces of real estate you own. Everyone wants in. I want in! Your email inbox is the gateway to your mind, your heart, and dare I say your soul.

What are you allowing in?

That question has been really nagging me lately, ever since I finished reading Hannah Brencher’s book The Unplugged Hours. In it, she talks about considering and then defining what “unplugged” means to you. One of the ways I’m unplugging is by purging my email subscriptions. In other words, I’m unsubscribing. In droves. En masse. I’ve probably unsubscribed from 100 email lists in the last few weeks.

Why? Because I’m trying to re-establish my email inbox—one of my most important pieces of real estate—as a place that reflects my values, that reflects what I should be caring about. And I just don’t think I should be caring that much about my local pizza place.

After receiving the “10% off for happy hour” email, I went through and counted how many emails I had from the pizza joint. Guess how many.

66.

I had 66 emails in my inbox about pizza. And that doesn’t even count the ones that I had deleted! So I navigated to the bottom of the email, found the “unsubscribe” link, and gladly hit it. No more pizza emails vying for my attention. No more happy hour deals stealing my focus. And now, more space for what matters.

Friend, I encourage you to unsubscribe. Unsubscribe from what doesn’t really matter. Leave space for what really does. Reclaim your precious email real estate.

You won’t regret it.

Photo by Stephen Phillips - Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash