Kinetic Enterprise - eZine Article

More than 100 million trees’ worth of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.

(New American Dream calculation from Conservatree and U.S. Forest Service statistics)

< eZine Archives Menu

Fueling Your Fire - February 13, 2007

Taking Back Time

Time is a great equalizer. There are 24 hours in a day and regardless of who you are, how much money you have, or the status you command, not one of us gets more than 24 hours each day. And, yet, despite this unwavering time boundary, most of us continue to long for more. We fantasize about the ways we’ll live differently, and feel differently, when we reach that ever-elusive period of our lives where we have all the time we want/need.

Instead of trying to alter the laws of physics pining for a way to expand the number of hours you have in order to manage the increased number of tasks on your plate, how about honoring what we’re all given by decreasing the number of time-sucking tasks you engage in? Over the next several editions of Fueling Your Fire, we’re going to look at some of the easy ways we can each reclaim time. Let’s start by declaring our freedom from junk mail.

The Lost Day
I estimate that I spend at least 5 minutes per day dealing with junk mail. Five minutes per day, 6 days a week, 310 days per year (give or take a holiday or two). That’s 1,550 minutes per year spent dealing with something I didn’t want in the first place! Not to mention the human and environmental waste involved with the design, printing, transporting, and delivering of something that I cart into my house, sort through (wouldn’t want to miss my chance at being a Publisher’s Clearinghouse winner), open, shred, and ultimately recycle.

Want to take back some time? Here are some ways you can eliminate junk mail:

1.	Start by checking out the easy-to-use and ready-to-send opt-out request forms available through the New American Dream website: Freedom from Junk Mail

2.	Send a postcard or letter to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643. Include your complete name, address, zip code and a request to "activate the preference service." For up to five years, this will stop mail from all member organizations that you have not specifically ordered products from.

3.	Whenever you request a catalog, ask that your name NOT be added to the mailing list. Or, if you want to receive that company’s catalog but no others, request they not sell your name.

There is a bit of an upfront time involved in taking these steps because, unfortunately, most companies require a written request (a process that takes both time and resources to print and send), but consider it an investment in your future bank of time. And, just like investing in your business or your health, this is an investment that is bound to pay worthwhile dividends.

1,550 minutes per year... That’s over 25 hours. Looks like you just got one day back—what do you think you’ll do with it?

Here's to Reclaiming Time,

Subscribe to Fueling Your Fire | Privacy Policy | Archives Menu

Return to Top