• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Danika Dinsmore

Storyteller / Activist

  • Writings
    • White Forest Series
      • Brigitta of the White Forest (Book 1)
      • The Ruins of Noe (Book 2)
      • Ondelle of Grioth (Book 3)
      • Narine of Noe (Book 4)
      • Voyage from Foraglenn (Book 5)
      • Song from Afar (Book 6)
      • Omnibus Edition Vol. 1
      • Omnibus Edition Vol. 2
    • Poetry
      • 3:15
      • Her Red Book
      • Everyday Angels and Other Near-death Experiences
      • Between Sleeps
    • Other Words
      • Online Appearances
      • Reckoning Press
      • Now reShowing
      • And the start line is…
  • About
    • Bio
    • Interviews and Press
  • Events
  • Resources
  • C.A.R/E.

show and tell

Light Letter of Unsubscription

August 15, 2011 by openchannel 3 Comments

Light Letter of Unsubscription

In honour of my decision to GET and STAY FOCUSED, I have been unsubscribing from the many distracting e-mail lists I’m on. Some are lists my conscience thinks I *should* be on, but have not made the time to read (I like to say “have not made” the time to read instead of “have not had” the time to read to recognize that how I spend my time is always my choice).

Yes, I still want to save the planet. Unsubscribing from the oil spill relief newsletter will not make me a bad person. In the past, I would see those emails in my inbox and then file them for later digestion. They’ve been piling up for months. But did I sleep better knowing they were available for immediate retrieval? No, I slept worse because they became part of the Pile-of-Unread-Unrearched-Information-Vital-to-Making-Me-a-Better-Person pile. (And let me tell you, that pile was only 1/2 the size of the Great-Unfinished-Projects pile.)

Getting rid of all that guilt and responsibility is freeing me to be more focused on what I love to do, which makes me a ray of sunshine to deal with, which can only make the planet a safer place for all (including the environment, because when I’m happy I ride my bike more).

Each time I went to unsubscribe to a newsletter, it always asked for a comment about why I wanted to unsubscribe. I used to write some generic b.s. if anything at all.

So, instead, today when I unsubscribed (hoping to bring a smile to the face of the minimum wage worker whose job it is to record, collate, and write a report about why people unsubscribe from their site) I did something like this:

Please take a moment to tell us why you chose to unsubscribe:

It’s not you, it’s me. It’s tearing me apart to leave you this way. I’m just focusing elsewhere right now and can’t be distracted by your seductive stories. Perhaps in a parallel universe, we can still be friends. Best of luck.

NOTE: If you are not good at letting go all at once, keep a list of all the enewsletters you unsubscribed from in case you ever want back on their lists.

Filed Under: Archived Blog, do something different, Show and Tell, writing life Tagged With: show and tell

Footer

AMAZON GOODREADS
  • Archived Blog
  • Contact
  • Credits
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© Copyright 2025 Danika Dinsmore • Developed with ♥ by Ming Liu

Manage Cookie Consent
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, check out their Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}