Comments on: Why Do People Find Email So Difficult To Deal With?

By: dorothy steinocher

dorothy steinocher — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:29:29 +0000

why doesn't my printing go all the way to the right side of page when I send an email. It looks like it does until I send it then it's likea half page across?

By: SEO Results

SEO Results — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:28:43 +0000

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By: julian

julian — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:18:13 +0000

I find email useful for work, setting up inital contact with people, and keeping in touch with long distance friends. BUT I find it intolerable that people in the same town use email as their only way of communicating with me. It is as if people forget to pick up the phone and have a conversation and do not realize that some of us work 18 hours per day on the computer. So as of recently I have begun to tell friends living locally that email is no more a viable option. I find it very frustrating to chit chat, sort of make pans (only to have them unmade six times as the other ponders "should I go to the movie or dinner with my friend… or maybe I will change my mind again." Internet, socially and locally, has become a way of of not making decisions and ultimately, of never making commitments to friendships and eliding other people's time.

By: rob_freebor8945

rob_freebor8945 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:54 +0000

This thread made me think about something I read a few years ago – "Managing Incoming Email", a .pdf by Mark Hurst.

Here's a link to his page, the .pdf I noted is 4th on the list

http://www.creativegood.com/team/mark.html

By: richbradsh52001

richbradsh52001 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:53 +0000

I work slightly differently - I read everything as it comes in, then either leave it, respond or star it. I don't delete, and just keep everything in my inbox, but marked as read. (This is in Gmail)

I filter out emails from websites or mailing lists, and label them with the website name or category. If they are things I'll never read, then I mark them as read. (Freecycle for instance generates 100s of emails a day)

To be fair though, I don't really use email to communicate with most people - I don't use IM either. Facebook for quick messages to friends, twitter + friendfeed for more general conversations and my blog for an even more general conversation.

I tend to use email for things I would have written a letter for in the olden days.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:53 +0000

Funny you mention this. NPR is covering this very subject all this week on Morning Edition. Here is the text for tomorrow's (Monday's), early:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor...

Supposedly there will be different email-related stories every day this week.

By: deva_hazari2084

deva_hazari2084 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:53 +0000

I believe the number one answer is simply lack of discipline. Number two is not having a viable system/approach to process email. I adopted an approach similar to what you describe a couple of years ago and email stopped being a problem, even after taking a 3-week vacation. I wrote about email discipline a couple of years ago: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2006/09/email_disci…

By: bfeld

bfeld — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:53 +0000

It varies. Usually a couple of hours throughout the day. Email is my main communication nerve center.

By: bfeld

bfeld — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:55:53 +0000

Re: no way to answer every email as soon as it comes in: I've been doing this for years and manage to keep my inbox empty (there's nothing in it right now). There are a lot of subtle things involved in this – I think I'll write a separate post describing in detail how I do it since it's such a common problem (and misconception) that you simply can't keep your inbox empty.