Jon
Barnes.

[NOTE: This was written for my Friday Newsletter audience, so some bits might not feel quite relevant to a blog post, but I think it's worth sharing anyway because I think writers (& marketeers) should check for consent more regularly when publishing. Not just for their audience's benefit, but for their own stats to be clean and honest too. Here I go...]

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The digital world has us sucked in by design and we're bombarded every day with enormous amounts of distracting, pointless information, created by companies who want our attention at all costs. This is sometimes referred to as the attention economy.

I'm not into it. And when it comes to this Friday newsletter and podcast updates, I'm not looking for loads of subscribers who don't find this valuable, but for a small and strong community of people who do. I don't want to steal your attention like an intruder in your inbox, but be a welcome Friday addition to your digital life.

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Unsubscribe to my newsletter

‍So...
• If you don't want to receive these emails anymore, you can unsubscribe here :) You'll have saved the effort of clicking 'mark as read' or 'delete' every week :) [Note: I obviously took the link out here since it was for people on my mailing list to unsub]
• If you are liking these articles, podcasts and talks, remain as you are, and please send me an email with any requests or comments that can help me make it better for you
• If you love these Friday newsletters, then you can support this part of my work in other ways too. You could share it with friends or on social media, or you could support on a monthly-pay-what-you-want basis here. Thanks for sticking around for the journey :)

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What else can you do to digital spring clean?‍

Digital technology was supposed to connect us and make our lives easier, but it's also meant that we often intrude in other people's realities by broadcasting into them. I do my best to not let technology intrude into my life and sometimes that means a little spring clean. Here are some examples of things that I do to keep my digital house clean and tidy:
• I sometimes delete almost all of my apps so that I default to undistracted, and then gradually add in the ones I need.
• I regularly clean up my email newsletter subscriptions.
• I leave my phone at home a lot, normally on airplane mode.
• I never have my phone on disturb mode (why isn't it defaulted to 'do not disturb'?!).
• Almost all my notifications are off on my phone.
• I recommend trying tricks like this, anything really that can put a stop to the never ending firehose of cat gifs and clickbait news articles that are being put in front of our eyes.

So when it comes to this newsletter, I hope you're finding this valuable and that you stay subscribed, but if not, I'm happy I'll have helped you clean up your digital life by at least one weekly email :)

Take care,
Jon

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