Email Overload: When Enough is Enough

Do you spend too much time on email?  If you’re like most people, you turn on the computer and immediately open your email.  Clearing out your inbox(es) might take an hour or 2, or even your entire morning if you’ve been out of the office for a few days. And Mondays?  Well, let’s just say that email backlog is a huge contributing factor to why so many people dread Mondays!  Are you experiencing email overload?
Whether you work outside the home, work at home, are a student, or are a stay-at-home parent, email is an essential component in most people’s lives.  Multiply a regular email quantity times all your different functions (parent, volunteer, boss, employee, blogger, or whichever apply to you) and you end up with what could be a full-time job on its own: processing email.
We’re always interested in ways for people, especially parents and work at home professionals, to balance the different aspects of their lives.  Decluttering the email process is an important step to living a more organized, simple, and stress-free life.  Next in this series, we’ll be looking at ways to manage email overload and streamline your processes to free up time.  Today, we’re talking about how you compare to others as far as the volume of your email influx.

Email Overload: Where do you draw the line?

We asked some business people to give us a little insight into their email situations.  I added myself into the list as well to see how I compared with the respondents.  We asked questions like how much time they spend on email per day, how many email inboxes they maintain, and if they have any special methods of handling email so that it doesn’t take up all their time.  The answers were not surprising, but a bit overwhelming when you put them into context.

Shellie, Full-Time Accountant by Day and Blogger at Saving with Shellie

“I check email all day. Between blog email, work email, survey email, junk email and personal email, I probably get close to 400 emails a day.”

Tiffany, Mom of 3, Blogger at Lattes And Life

“Checking e-mail is part of my morning routine. After I get my toddler settled down with breakfast and morning cartoons, I grab my coffee and breakfast and head to the computer. I have two inboxes and average 200 to 400 e-mails a day, easily.
I try to tackle the easy ones first…read only or quick responses. Sometimes I save the more detailed ones for my son’s naptime. I check my inboxes throughout the day, and try to get them mostly caught up before I shut down at the end of the day.”

Brad Wilson, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Brads Deals

“As editor of BradsDeals.com, I’m at the center of an email storm.  Questions and ideas from shoppers, retailers, colleagues, the media – you name it.  All told, I get at least 300 emails per day.  If I spent all day glancing at my inbox, it would consume and distract me to such a degree I’d never get work done!
“To make it manageable, I have to have dedicated email time and dedicated no-email time.  It also keeps things in perspective because email plays a trick on us: if we see one come in, the importance and urgency of that lone email is heightened; if we wait until later in the day and then look at 10, that one looks less important in context.”

Cindi Matthews, Business Owner, Virtual Assistant, Timeless Bliss Editor

“I have 4 email addresses.  2 for blogs and online boutique businesses, One for Virtual Assistant business; the other for Editor of Timeless Bliss at Blissfully Domestic. I go through each email address in the morning and respond as necessary.  I check each address throughout the day via my cell phone and reply as necessary.  As I am away from my computer, I can’t respond with any attachments.  In the evening, I review each email address again and reply as necessary.
“As Editor, I also must do outreach for contributors, followup, and spend quite a bit of time answering technical questions.  For my blogs, I follow up on comments through email.  As a product reviewer, I contact PR companies and discuss review information.  I also seek out and respond to advertising questions.
All in all, I would estimate I spend at least 2 or more hours per day just on the email aspect of these businesses alone.  I have no help, and am a solo businesswoman.  I also work a full-time job.”

Danelle Ice, Mom of 3, Editor of IS World Media, Problogger, Entrepreneur

“With over 50 email addresses between all my companies, I have 20 inboxes that I personally monitor each day.  I start the day with an average of 300-400 new emails, and over the course of a typical day 400-600 more messages will come in.  So I get approximately 1000 emails per day, many of which require not only reading, but responses and possibly actions.
“I have constant communication with our clients, contributors and writers, colleagues, media and PR reps.  It’s not always possible to have dedicated non-email time, because I often find myself waiting for certain items to arrive so that I can complete a task or project I’m working on.  I also get tips, freebie alerts, and comments from readers, Facebook requests, Twitter alerts, and more.  There is also a bit of personal email, although I’m sorry to say that it usually gets pushed into last place.”

The craziness and sheer volume of my incoming emails (and the fact that email processing felt all-consuming) prompted the research for this series of articles.  Next up, we address different strategies for getting your email overload under control.
Which above example can you most identify with?  How do you handle your email?  What is your volume like?  Are you overwhelmed or find it impossible to deal with?  Let us know in the comments.