My Quest To Get Everyone To Stop Emailing Me

Think of it like a small, satisfying exercise in control.

Longtime readers of kosoff.medium.com may remember earlier this year when I attempted to simplify my life in just one small but meaningful way: I decided I would finally do what I said I would do for years but never did, which is cancel all my recurring payments that I didn’t really use anymore or that were no longer serving me. I was mostly successful in this quest (though I should probably do another subscription audit next year to keep myself accountable). This led me to a number of other, similar endeavors, like doing an audit of my closet and dresser, and another one of my bookcase, cutting ties with stuff that had just sort of accumulated in those places but that I never used. Ever late to cultural zeitgeisty trends, it felt appropriate that I was effectively instituting the Marie Kondo method, a few years too late.

I took three weeks off between jobs last month and earlier this month, which left me with a lot of time on my hands. During this time I had a number of things I wanted to see through, the sort of tasks you just don’t have time for when you work all day and can’t really tear yourself away from your computer because something urgent will inevitably come up while you’re in line at the post office. I finally hung up a bunch of artwork in my apartment; I sold and donated a bunch of clothes I don’t wear anymore; I mailed a bunch of packages I’d been putting off; I filed a claim for my pet insurance; I…