December Digital Detox

A New Tradition to Clear Your Digital Space Before the New Year

Last year in December, I took part in a digital detox I called “The Great Unsubscribe.” I was surprised by the positive responses I received—as well as just how good it felt for me—and so I thought I’d bring it back this year in one big post!

Let’s get to it!

First, Remember the Ground Rules

• Do what you need to do, and don’t feel guilty about it. Technology doesn’t have feelings.

• Don’t spend all day doing this (unless you want to!). Don’t make unsubscribing one more thing clogging up your to-do list. You might allocate just the first twenty minutes of your work day to unsubscribing, and then move on. Personally, I’m just doing it throughout each day as opportunities arise.

Step One: Eliminate the Extraneous Email

I am always flabbergasted when I hear people talk about the hundreds of unread emails in their inboxes, or when I see the little number of notifications on their iPhone. I get heart palpitations on their behalf. I don’t know how people live like that, but that’s besides the point… we’re all here because we’ve accumulated some inbox dust bunnies.

Delete the Backlog

First, let’s talk about the backlog.

Be real for a second. We’re all friends here.

Are you really going to click on the little arrow to the “Older” emails and do something with them? Or have they already been languishing in email purgatory for the last who-knows-how-many months?

Did you know in Gmail when you click to select all of your emails on page 1 of your inbox, it gives you the option of selecting all of the emails in your inbox, including all of the other pages?

This is your friend. Use it. Don’t let those emails languish any longer. You’re not going to go back to them. Just delete them and give yourself the gift of Inbox Zero (or maybe just Inbox Ten or Twenty) for Christmas.

Last year, my friend Allison Fallon actually came back from maternity leave to 5000 unread emails in her inbox. What did she do? She deleted them. All of them. She put out a post on Instagram saying, “If you emailed me while I was gone and it was important, please email me again.”

You can do the same.

Get the Onslaught Under Control

Okay, now let’s get to the emails that keep coming in. You know, the 20% off holiday deals from Shein or Crate & Barrel or REI or whatever other store. Thankfully, the holidays are the perfect time to unsubscribe from these emails because all of the vendors and influencers you haven’t heard from in months are popping back in to hopefully get you to buy something for the holidays.

My rule: If I haven’t seen an email from you or gotten something of value from you in months… I’m unsubscribing. And advertisements? That’s a firm do-not-pass-January, do-not-collect-$200.

Sometimes people are sneaky and put the link to “Unsubscribe” in white or the email is so long that you have to open it in your browser to Unsubscribe. Do it anyway. You won’t regret it, and you’ll be saving yourself the cognitive load of unwanted emails.

Consolidate What’s Left

You will still receive some emails that you don’t always want to receive. Such is life. Newsletters from people you really like and want to support. Deals you sometimes, occasionally use and still want to know about.

I actually had several newsletters that I was receiving in multiple inboxes, which is totally unnecessary.

For anything like this, consolidate:

• Create a filter so that these emails automatically go into a folder you can check at your leisure but don’t have to look at every day.

• See if you have the option to manage the settings on your subscription and decrease the frequency of the emails you’re getting. Some shops or influencers will let you decrease the subscription to just once a month, or just one type of email.

• For duplicate subscriptions, decide which email inbox you want to receive the subscription and unsubscribe from the other one.

• For Substack subscriptions, you can download the Substack app and turn off email notifications for Substacks you subscribe to. This has been HUGE for me, as I subscribe to a ton of Substacks and was inundated with newsletters everyday. Now, I read them when I want to on my phone.

• Use an app like Unroll.Me to let it consolidate your subscriptions for you. This app makes it SO easy to 1) see all of the things you’re subscribed to that you didn’t even realize, and 2) delete or consolidate.

Step Two: Scrub the Socials

Last year, I was just beginning my detachment from social media. Now, I would say I’ve fully accepted that I don’t enjoy social media anymore. I don’t use it to connect to my family or friends; I have private messaging apps, email, and good old fashioned phone for that. I still have Instagram (but I primarily post book/work-related content), Facebook, and TikTok, but I’ve officially deleted my X/Twitter and Pinterest accounts. I may have other social accounts that I’ve forgotten about, but I feel good about my data being out and available in two less places.

Maybe this time next year, I’ll be writing to you having deleted Facebook or Instagram. I think it’s least likely that I will delete TikTok because I just love consuming content on it, but who knows. :) It feels good to let my private life just be… private.

Step Three: Purge the Payments

This year I shut down my business, which means I’ve been able to let go of a lot of now-unnecessary digital subscriptions, like Zoom, Otter.ai, MindMeister, Xodo/Eversign, Blinkist, and Convertkit/Kit. My husband and I already try to be judicious about the payments/subscriptions we sign up for, but even we are surprised by how many monthly payments accumulate throughout the year. Right now is the perfect time to get rid of the ones you haven’t used as much as you thought you would before the start of 2025!

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What I just gave you was a summary of last year’s digital detox, parts 1 & 2—the “stuff” we can unsubscribe from. If you want to take this deeper, I highly recommend reading through Parts 3 and 4, where I wrote more about the emotions, expectations, and beliefs that we can also unsubscribe from. It’s powerful stuff.

What I’ve found is that every time I unsubscribe from something, I feel the smallest, barely perceptible sense of relief. And it adds up. Sometimes, there’s a bittersweet feeling at letting go of something I used to enjoy that isn’t serving me anymore. But it’s opened up more space in my life for time with my kids, time reading, and time pursuing the things that give me joy.

Wishing you the same!

Ariel