Listen people, I get a lot of email too. Probably something like 500 missives per day. But this really isn't that difficult to fend off. Let me help... Tactic #1: Delete unnecessary items as they come in. Tactic #2: Reply to items when you have free time in elevators, meetings, subways, etc. Tactic #3: Don't leave work until you're down to five items. Tactic #4: Stop writing about
how much email you get. Done.
In case the whole "delete stuff you don't want when you get it" idea needs more than a pull-quote's explanation, here's a PDF i saw way too long ago about pwn1ng your email.
500 emails a day? really? non-spam emails? What do you do for a job?
also, deleting 'unnecessary' items seems a bit harsh. why not just ignore them and use flags to indicate which emails you should reply to?
Nope. Delete, delete, delete.
Fredo, deleting "unnecessary" emails seems harsh? It's an email. It doesn't have feelings, it doesn't hurt when it gets deleted. ;)
I have a number of emails that would fall into that category: thank you emails, listservs I don't have time to read, emails I am cc'd on by my staff to "keep me in the loop". I LOVE deleting them. I'm like a pgi in sh*T when I can walk into my office on Monday morning knowing that I cleaned out my inbox the night before.
I wake up in the morning, roll over, and start deleting emails. (There are girls who will verify this!)
I consider myself fortunate then to have ever received a response
The word I've heard for excessive bitching about too much email is "Spamtrum."