August 12, 2008

The Trouble With Checking Emails

While out on vacation for almost 11 days, I had to check emails.  I can’t fathom not checking emails at all and coming home to thousands of emails.  I think I would have cried…not that I don’t already feel like crying over the mental draining-ness (not a word I know) of keeping up with day to day emails.  Currently, I actively check 3 different email accounts. 

I know that tons of busy business people get overwhelmed by email and some have even stopped responding altogether to email, but I haven’t reached that point yet.  Companies like NutShell Mail (I met the founders at SXSW here in Austin earlier this year) attempt to solve it by having all of your emails going to one place.  Right now when I’m home two of my email addresses download into one Outlook and the third to another set up of Outlook on a different desktop at my day job.  When I’m on the road, I have to log in to 3 different webmail accounts.  Fortunately, I’m not on the road that often. 

What I found interesting is that I ended up probably deleting about 40% of the email I received (which included newsletters, news updates, blog feeds, friend updates, etc.) while I was gone.  I’m still deleting some even though I’m fairly caught up because if I tried to read them, I wouldn’t get to anything else!  It’s making me wonder if I should even be getting those emails and instead rely on the ‘if it’s really big news, I’ll hear about it from someone’ belief. 

The risk of doing this is looking stupid if something big has happened (especially in your market) and you unknowingly wear a blank stare when someone exclaims ‘Did you hear about xyz?!” 

I guess one always has to take calculated risks in life.  In my current life situation, I have to take the risk that I might not be in-the-know in exchange for paying attention to the rest of my life.

How do the rest of you cope with email overload…or do you?

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13 Responses to “The Trouble With Checking Emails”

1. August 12th, 2008 at 9:14 pm, Wendy Piersall Says:

   I’m NOT coping. I’m embarrassingly behind right now… EMBARRASSINGLY behind.

   
   Wendy Piersalls last blog post..Tap into the Biggest Spender :: Doing Business with the Federal Government

2. August 13th, 2008 at 7:58 am, Isaac Barchas Says:

   For me, email tipped from “blessing” to “curse” about 6 months ago. I’m going to follow Lessig’s lead and declare email bankruptcy. I just need to figure out if it will be Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 …

   –Isaac

3. August 13th, 2008 at 4:56 pm, Aruni Says:

   @Wendy - saw your recent post about clearing out your inbox using twitter. I hope it worked for you! I’ve gotten through my email but still have tons to actually answer.

   @Isaac - I think Chapter 11 has more benefits! I wonder who will come up with the next killer app for communications…I think too many emails actually might be killing us…slowly.

4. August 13th, 2008 at 10:29 pm, Frugal Babe Says:

   My husband and I work from home, and we’ve actively encouraged everyone - clients and the companies we represent - to use email rather than phone. We do still get phone calls, but the vast majority of our business is done by email. We both much prefer it that way. Yes, we’re sometimes up until 2am taking care of business, but while you can’t call someone at 2am, you can send them an email. It does get overwhelming sometimes, but it does give us more flexibility than we’d have without it. On the other hand, I can’t imagine taking a vacation and not being able to check it… we’d be inundated when we got back. That’s probably not good either. Good thing we enjoy our jobs!

   Frugal Babes last blog post..Moving On And Letting Go

5. August 13th, 2008 at 10:36 pm, bluntmoney Says:

   I do this. Plus I relentlessly unsubscribe from email lists, and reduce the number of times I check email each day.

   bluntmoneys last blog post..Finally reinvested

6. August 14th, 2008 at 5:21 am, SEO Hat On Says:

   We re-direct (but leave a copy on the server) all emails to gmail - then we can logon wherever we are located on holiday to pick up emails.

   SEO Hat Ons last blog post..Top 10 Free SEO Tools

7. August 14th, 2008 at 9:08 pm, Aruni Says:

   @Frugal Babe - On many occasions as you said it’s much easier to respond to an email late at night than a phone call. If I got as many phone calls as I do email, I’d have to move.

   @bluntmoney - All good points. I have tried to unsubscribe from some lists to and oddly some of them don’t seem to let me unsubscribe! I am an email checking fanatic…I probably should cut down on that. I bet that would mean I would delete even more email.

   @SEO Hat On - One of my accounts leaves my email on the server, the others I download. I have a bigger Deleted items folder than I’ve ever had before!

   Thank you all for the great comments!

8. August 18th, 2008 at 8:40 pm, Mark Says:

   Aruni,
   I have read a lot on this topic and have summarized tips from the GTD gurus on my blog. I hope you and your readers find this short post to be helpful: http://tinyurl.com/34ee2q

   Also, thank you for the shout out to NutshellMail. We are currently in private beta and will be releasing many more beta users into the system at the end of the month.

9. August 19th, 2008 at 9:06 pm, Immomsdaughter Says:

   I’m forever accessing my email even when I travel. Even if I don’t reply during those days, at least I read every one of them. I know it’s pretty overhwelming but I love the flexibility of emails and 90% of the time, I reply to all of them.

   Immomsdaughters last blog post..Another Week Of No School

10. August 20th, 2008 at 7:03 pm, Aruni Says:

    @Mark - great tips on reading email. Good luck with your continued beta and eventual launch of NutshellMail!

    @Immomsdaughter - I try to read them all as well. Email is a great tool, but sometimes can be mentally exhausting. You do a great job at replying to emails.

11. August 27th, 2008 at 9:00 pm, Marie Casas Says:

    I know, right? I recently got my beta invite to AwayFind, where you get a contact form for “urgent” messages. I still have some invites, if you like.
    I also have a bunch of other email addresses that I just auto-forward to my one gmail inbox, so that’s the only one I login to. I can also “send as” all the other email accounts from that core gmail account.
    I haven’t been consistent with GTD, but I think I got this from Merlin Mann with his zero inbox presentation at Google to use 4D: Do, Delegate, Delete, Defer.

    Marie Casass last blog post..Awesome Birthday Night at BarCamp Manila - Ready for DemoCamp?

12. August 28th, 2008 at 9:30 pm, Aruni Says:

    @Marie - Thanks for the options. I need to check them out. I do try to Do, Delete, or Defer. Sadly, I don’t have anyone to Delegate to right now. Sigh!

13. August 29th, 2008 at 6:20 am, Marie Casas Says:

    I know, right? I also WISH I had a Personal assistant to delegate to… and run errands like go to the bank and buy office supplies or new ink toner… and maybe do the market research and financials for our b-plan.
    Marie Casass last blog post..Awesome Birthday Night at BarCamp Manila - Ready for DemoCamp?