Mind Mint: Make every day Container Day.

Every couple of months my town holds a “Container Day” on which residents can haul whatever junk we’ve accumulated and chuck it into a dumpster for free. That broken hose reel…the box of old VCR tapes…the scraps of drywall the contractor left behind…over the dumpster wall they go: toss…crash…gone!

Yes, I feel guilty knowing that it all ends up in a landfill. But the guilt gets diminished by the feeling of freedom and lightness that comes from getting rid of the things I no longer need.

In our digital world, it can always be Container Day: we can take a few moments before hitting “send” to look for the unneeded parts of any communication we create. My rule of thumb: it can always be shorter, and shorter is always better.

Plus unlike physical junk, your digital discards have no negative impact on the environment…just a positive impact on your audience.