On any given day, I receive about 150-200 emails that require my attention. As of 11am this morning, I have already received around 70 such emails from my work account alone, and the deluge has not yet begun. When I open my Gmail account in the morning, there are usually a good 20-25 emails that sit in this box as well, most of them informational and promotional but some of them reminders of things to do or friends to chat with. That pile just contributes to the list.
Over the course of any given day, I try to process as many of these emails as I can. Perhaps anachronistically, I clear as many as I can from whatever day seems fitting, not so much that I have some priority set to them, but because it catches my attention to get done at the moment.
Of course, this means that I don't quite process all the requisite emails on any given day, but let's leave that dog lying for now.
The kids today, they don't use email - they use something else. It's called text messaging and social networking. When one asks to "Facebook" them, it is clear where yesterday's email is now going.
Alas, this is a sign of the times. As much as I would like to try an email-quitting experiment like the writer at Techcrunch is doing, I believe that I am stuck with this deluge. And as a side note, it is a deluge that keeps me writing more fun things like a blog post than an unending number of less-than-five-line responses that are curt and focused meant to end an email thread.
With that, I am back to the inbox for my daily Sisyphean task.
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