Welcome to Happy Monday. Every Monday, I share three pieces of curated content to brighten your day and an action item to motivate you for the week. Here's what I have for you today...

How did Anatolian musicians influence jazz?
Who's running your day? You or your inbox?
How do emails contribute to climate change?

Curious?
Keep reading...

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For your mind

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For your eyes

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For your ears

The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out is a smooth background music choice for this week's recommended actions —details below.

The album opens with Blue Rondo à la Turk, a jazz standard written in 9/8 time. This rhythm was inspired by the Turkish musicians Brubeck met whilst on tour in 1958. It's a musical time signature I grew up with. Even though it may sound like an un-danceable rhythm, it is what most Turkish folks dance to, with a special skipping steps move.

And if 9/8 doesn't match your rhythm, try 5/4 with the third track on the album, Take Five.

Maintaining a sustainable inbox

Last Saturday was the Digital Cleanup Day. And those who followed the recommendations in my previous email got a head start.

This week, we're focusing on emails. I cleaned up my inbox at the end of December to start the year afresh. Deleting unwanted emails, unsubscribing from those big brand promo lists, and getting rid of clutter instantly lightened my inbox. The benefit is not just how it feels, but also how it affects the environment.

Our digital carbon footprint is mostly ignored. All those emails in your inbox take up space on servers, which consume energy while being powered and cooled. Less stored data means less energy consumption.

Here's how to create and maintain a sustainable inbox…

Clean up your inbox

• You know all those promotional emails you always get but never read? Filter them by the sender, unsubscribe, and delete them in bulk.
• Also unsubscribe from the newsletters you once liked but aren't interested in anymore.
• Delete or archive old conversations that you don't need anymore.
• Empty the Trash after deleting emails.

Keep your inbox clean and sustainable

• Keep large and important files in cloud storage so they can be shared as links instead of chunky attachments.
• If you must send multiple attachments in an email, compress files into ZIP to reduce the file size and energy consumption.
• Avoid sending one-word emails, like "OK" or "Thanks".
• Assess your email signature. As it is inserted in every email you send, it's a good practice to keep it lightweight. Make sure it's text only and not too long.
• If you have a newsletter, delete cold subscribers. Those are the ones who haven't opened your emails in the last few months. So the emails you send them provide no value, crowd their inbox, and increase your carbon footprint. Most newsletter platforms offer automation templates to remove cold subscribers, so you can set it up once and forget about it.

Willing to take it a step further? Practice the inbox zero method. Inbox zero is a productivity practice where you aim to achieve the state of zero unread emails by deleting, delegating, archiving, or responding to the emails you get every day. If every day sounds too intense, make it a weekly habit.

The goal here is not to have an empty inbox but to maintain an email management practice and avoid being overwhelmed.

Happy Monday, Reader

Merve Goulding

PS. Will you be around Brighton tomorrow evening —Tue, March 18th? I'm speaking about time management at the Notion Devotion Brighton. Would love to meet you there!

Need help organising your digital workspace?

• Book a free 20-minute call for quick guidance on reorganising your Notion workspace. Take the action steps and make adjustments yourself.
• For a done-for-you Notion decluttering, I have one spot left this month. We'll audit your systems and decide on the changes together. Then I'll do the work. You'll start afresh the next day without losing a single piece of data.

​Schedule a chat for either option.​

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