Friday Question #135
How many emails do you have to get in a day to feel stressed out (by the amount of them)? How do you manage how you respond to them (do you prioritize them)?
Do you email back and forth with your significant other throughout the day?
I think at work, it takes about 25 unread emails for me to feel stressed out. Even though I know they are likely conversation threads, I don’t like feeling behind!
My personal email is an entirely different beast. I’ll feel stressed if I just have 5 personal emails to respond to! I don’t know why – I hate making people wait for a response, unless I tell them it will take awhile for me to get back to them.
According to this little blurb from Women’s Health, the magic number is 50.
I have about a zillion folders in my personal email. I keep things to respond to “unread” in my inbox then file the email after I respond. I am an email hoarder. I rarely delete personal mail.
Now, I thought of the other question when I read this article, about a woman who sent so many emails to her husband that he stopped responding. She thinks he has “information overload” from her sending too many emails.
Steven and I are much more likely to email back and forth throughout the day than call each other. But we don’t write novels. It’s “What do you want for dinner?” “My train comes at 5:50” and “Data is being a butt munch today.” Stuff like that. And I do use Lotus Notes (BARF) to send appointments to Steven. That is the only way we synchronize our schedules!
I’ll have to be careful about the information overload thing though. I do have a tendency to get excited and send out a lot of emails.
Themocracy
Haha…my e-mails stress me out, and I get a LOT throughout the course of the day, especially from students. After a certain point, I stop responding…which is probably not the appropriate way to deal with it 🙂
Most of my emails are junk so easily deletable without response. Can’t imagine having 50 I need to respond to.
Caveman and I rarely email (not daily) and if he calls once a day that’s a lot. No overload here!
I don’t get a ton of emails every day but I do find that if it is a day when a lot of people have emailed me I forget to respond to them all. I don’t have a system like yours for keeping them marked unread until I respond. I tried that, but then I kept thinking I had new UNREAD emails and so I’d check them again and waste time. I need to come up with a plan though because currently I don’t really delete much so my inbox is very full and if I don’t respond to something right away, I will forget even if I mean to resond later.
Oh emails! I am constantly checking my personal email at work, I always try to respond back quickly if I can. Otherwise they just wait until I have a free moment. I don’t get many work emails which is nice.
at work, i get so many emails a day that my mailbox is always “almost full”. i don’t have any personal emails come through there. t and I text a lot more than we email. I only email if there is a specific article he needs to see or a dog that i want 😉
Oh my gosh…maybe two?! 😉 I don’t know why, but emails stress me out sometimes. Particularly with co-workers (and certain friends), because I am always SO WORRIED that I will word something wrong and they’ll get offended or something. My office mate seriously responds to emails almost instantly – like it’s instant messenger or something! I wish I could be more like that…
I don’t think emails are meant to be responded to instantly… but I know what you mean. I sometimes feel like I have to!
I admit, my email at home is a disaster but I really don’t get that that much that requires an actual reply. I do tend to let it build up and then respond to several all in a row. Doesn’t help that the webmail function of my email address is horrible.
As for my work email, that’s much more under control. I flag things for follow-up and delete other stuff ASAP. Of course, I think I get less email than most people so it’s not really a chore.
I don’t get much email right now at work, which I’ve found is kind of nice. I’m sure that will change soon though. When I get a lot and it stresses me out, I turn it off and only deal with it 2-3 times a day so it isn’t interrupting me all day long.
My fiance (I LOVE calling him that…lol) and I instant message off and on all day at work instead of email. Some days we do it a lot; most days it’s just a thought here and there. It just depends on how busy we are. We occasionally email a link or picture or something for later if we know the other one is swamped and can’t get to it right away. I can’t imagine sending him 21 messages before he’s answered though…not that I don’t have them in my head, but I’m sure I’d drive him crazy!
I’m probably in overwhelm if I have 10. I hate having unread/not responded to emails in my in box at work or in my personal account. But I am totally a control freak like that.
Mr. Darcy and I are big on texting during the day. We sometimes email. Never call.
I would say 20-25 unread work emails would start stressing me out. I usually stay on top of them and red flag things I need to focus on at some point. I def do prioritze based on urgency. Steve and I instant message through out the day, which works out for me so much better than email.
Personal emails are different. I don’t like to keep those unread for long – I much rather answer those than work emails. Plus I start to feel bad if I don’t respond because I don’t want the sender to think I’m ignoring them.
I feel bad for not responding too! I still need to respond to your email from Friday! My inbox has been ignored all weekend 🙁
“Data is being a butt munch today” HA!! 🙂 I like to email Jason back and forth rather than talk sometimes too. An email organizing system is mandatory: folders, junk, delete and check as unread, done.
I still can’t believe that you still use lotus notes. Amazing!
I know! We have a solicitation for offers out right now and might get a new email system, or might stick with Lotus Notes.
Between the 6 accounts I check each day, I get about 250 emails. Only my work/day job account do I get some stress about making sure every email is checked.
As for emailing my sig other, we text or call if we need to talk during the day.
At work, I can get over 100 emails a day and that doesn’t count the ones from friends and family who email me at work as well. I hate not being up on them mostly because my boss is always about 300 emails behind and most of mine as from people looking for answers. Email causes such a communication problem in my building and that is what stresses me out. When the leader drops the ball, all the balls tend to drop.
My personal email typically gets about 20 a day, mostly blog emeials and I try to read them every morning while I drink my coffee and read blogs.
I feel a personal obligation to answer people- for me, it is just a respect thing.
I don’t get too many personal emails. (and I have to log onto a separate server at work now to check my personal email account!) Joey and I text instead (he doesn’t have regular access to a computer at work). I’ll email him if I want him to see something online but then I have to tell him to check his email! haha.
At work, I don’t get a ton of emails but I get a decent amount during the day I guess. I’m rarely stressed about the amount of email I have because most do not require a response or are just a simple question. My boss does sometimes write very long, detailed emails which can be difficult to read through. I usually print them out and highlight the important parts. heh.
The majority of my emails at work are threads about where to go for lunch or who is going to run (see my blog today).
I love that you are so great at responding to via email. If you hadnt responded via email to a comment I made on your blog, I would never have learned more things about you and found out even more what a great person you are!! You do such a great job of being such a great resource to so many people. Have a great weekend Kim!!
Thanks Laura. You’re such a sweetie!
What were the kids for Halloween?
At work I get a good 150+ emails a day. Not all directed at me personally and not all requiring action. Out ticketing system happily sends the entire ops group an email every time a user enters a ticket (yay).
My girlfriend and I text each other back and forth during the day. I love it.
Hmm, at work it is typically five unread/unanswered emails to feel stressed, as they typically involve a research issue.
My husband and I email back and forth all day! We did prior to him going overseas and his being there just further amplified it.
Have a great weekend!
I am a serial email deleter. I can’t stand having a long strand of emails clogging up my screen, ha.
I’m also kinda bad at responding, though. I usually take 1-2 days, even though *I* get annoyed when I have to wait that long for other people to respond to me, haha. 🙂
How many emails do you have to get in a day to feel stressed out (by the amount of them)? How do you manage how you respond to them (do you prioritize them)?
-It doesn’t matter cause you know why I delete most of my emails actually. I just look to see if they’re from people I know and are important.
Do you email back and forth with your significant other throughout the day?
-There is no significant other lol
I don’t send a lot of e-mails to my husband. He usually sends me something to do with a recruiter. We text if it’s something funny or trying to find out where the other one is. Usually we save everything to talk about when we actually see each other!
I hate having unread e-mails anywhere. I read everything for work nearly right away unless I’m really deep in a project. I am an e-mail hoarder too. Save everything! so bad!
Not counting blog-related emails, I rarely have more than 3-5 emails that need responses. The only “work” emails I get are from my boss at the nanny job and other emails might be from my family or other babysitting clients. The other stuff is just junk, mostly!