One of the great things about going on vacation is the fresh outlook you get after.

I just got back from vacation a few days ago. It was a good vacation. No computers, no internet, so there was no temptation to check emails or anything else.

Of course, what that really means is that I had a TON of email waiting for me when I came home.

However, even this can be a plus. In the mailbox I use for newsletters and such, I had more than 300 messages. This box does have a spam filter. Some of the emails are from things I really should have unsubscribed from ages ago, and just kept the address to resusbscribe, such as the one to Freecycle. Nothing I need from that right now and nothing to give away at the moment, so those are just clutter. But from all those emails, there were very few worth even scanning. I deleted all but about 40 of them just offhand. I didn’t really need to read all those week-old “read this now” newsletters, after all.

Seeing how much obvious junk there was has made it quite clear to me that there are still more newsletters I need to unsubscribe from. I use that address for the vast majority of newsletters I am subscribed to just so that I can get them all in one place. Cleaning it out is something of a bear at times, but overall I like the system.

It is a constant annoyance to me that so many big name gurus use their lists almost exclusively as a place to sell the latest hyped up product. I don’t care about most of those. I’m not a big name, I don’t have the budget to buy a lot of this stuff, and I’m having lots of fun figuring things out on my own. Considering I make more now than I did as a medical transcriptionist, even in a bad month, I think I’m doing rather well.

This has kicked off another round of unsubscribing for me. It’s something I do regularly anyhow, but clearly I have not done enough of it, as there’s still way too much junk coming in. I don’t mind the occasional sales pitch, and I like knowing about new, quality products, but I expect more than just hype to keep me interested.

I also thought a lot about what I want to do with my business while on vacation. While I managed to avoid going into the cyber cafe when we passed it, nothing can keep me from getting ideas. I wouldn’t want to stop getting ideas, in all honesty.

All in all, it was exactly what a vacation should be. Very refreshing and a time to have fun with the family, and back to work with fresh energy.

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