vB Easy Archive - How Many E-mails is Too Many?

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How Many E-mails is Too Many?
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Posted by: Urban Strata

Question: At what point is e-mail too overwhelming and counter-productive? Today I received 277 e-mails (a moderate day) and sent 68 e-mails. I feel like I barely got anything done.

Thoughts?

Posted by: neo001

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Strata

Question: At what point is e-mail too overwhelming and counter-productive? Today I received 277 e-mails (a moderate day) and sent 68 e-mails. I feel like I barely got anything done.

Thoughts?

hmnn drop everything that you are doing , leave your phone , go to the nearest pub have a Sam Adams and enjoy it !! pick up a girl while you enjoy your beer , and . . . take a walk , a long walk , dude you are a work-aholic

Posted by: maevro

For work or personal? If you are receiving over 250 personal emails a day, well I would have to say that it a lot. If thats for work, I still would have to say that is a lot, but in this day and age, its not uncommon.

My emails are very high in the beginning of the week but die down towards Friday. On a Monday, I can open outlook and see at least 100 - 125 emails and then see another 50 or so trickle in as the day goes on. I actually send out as much as I receive.

Its a day and age where communication is less personal and this is our reality. I mean, my office communicates by instant message and this is common as I have worked in other offices where we did the same thing. Listen, there are some people that I don't want to speak to and email is great but it also takes any personal element out of business at the same time.

Posted by: elzein

Quote:

Originally Posted by maevro

For work or personal? If you are receiving over 250 personal emails a day, well I would have to say that it a lot. If thats for work, I still would have to say that is a lot, but in this day and age, its not uncommon.

My emails are very high in the beginning of the week but die down towards Friday. On a Monday, I can open outlook and see at least 100 - 125 emails and then see another 50 or so trickle in as the day goes on. I actually send out as much as I receive.

Its a day and age where communication is less personal and this is our reality. I mean, my office communicates by instant message and this is common as I have worked in other offices where we did the same thing. Listen, there are some people that I don't want to speak to and email is great but it also takes any personal element out of business at the same time.

Very True, my whole office and vendors use MS Office Communicator and Yahoo Messenger to communicate along with email. I would say i get about 150-200 a day and it slows down in the middle of the week. Most of my damn day is waisted on confrence calls. **** now that i think about it i dont even know what i do other than confrence calls and respond to IM's and email..lol

Posted by: RF9

It sounds like all you do is read and write emails. If your job is something like program management then that sounds like a productive days work as email and phone calls is a majority of what you should be doing. Or any job where you're the facilitator between parties.

But I work in engineering and the time I spend on email directly impacts my productivity. So I'd call 10-20 emails of any length over a few word responses too many.
I get a lot of email from CCs and generated by bug databases and source control. But many email that actually require a real response isn't a good thing.

So it really depends on what you do and the content of your responses. If a majority of those responses is a few word acknowledgement or delegation, then that sounds very busy, but productive.

However there is a too many. When you have that much going on it's hard to keep track and make sure everything is followed up upon.

Posted by: Urban Strata

Quote:

Originally Posted by RF9

It sounds like all you do is read and write emails. If your job is something like program management then that sounds like a productive days work as email and phone calls is a majority of what you should be doing. Or any job where you're the facilitator between parties.

[...]

So it really depends on what you do and the content of your responses. If a majority of those responses is a few word acknowledgement or delegation, then that sounds very busy, but productive.

However there is a too many. When you have that much going on it's hard to keep track and make sure everything is followed up upon.

Agreed with all the points above. Only a small portion of the e-mails I send are lengthy or in-depth; the rest are quick shots out to team members or reports to whom I'm delegating tasks, sharing/confirming information or just acknowledging "message received." Nonetheless, there are times when it definitely feels overwhelming, especially when I'm out of the office for a few days.

Today's tally:

255 e-mails received
82 e-mails sent

Posted by: mikewchandler

too many emails.....must do what neo001 said....before it's tooooooo laaaaattttteeeeee!!!!!

Posted by: nextel1996

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Strata

Today's tally:

255 e-mails received
82 e-mails sent

You definitely fit into the "I need a keyboard" category.

Posted by: Urban Strata

Quote:

Originally Posted by nextel1996

You definitely fit into the "I need a keyboard" category.

This is true.

I think part of my problem is that I'm surrounded by people going bonkers getting ready for CTIA next week!

Today's tally:

393 e-mails received
112 e-mails sent

Posted by: Mashie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Strata

This is true.

I think part of my problem is that I'm surrounded by people going bonkers getting ready for CTIA next week!

Today's tally:

393 e-mails received
112 e-mails sent

lol probably. I average a little over 300 emails a day. My rule of thumb is that I have to be on the TO: line to reply or take action. If I am on the CC: line that I read for reference and file away. (most of the time).