Last week, I twittered a link to one of my most popular blog posts ever, “Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email.” Almost immediately, I received two email messages.

The first person said, “I really want to catch-up on email, but I have over 2,100 unread messages in my inbox. Every time I think about trying to catch up, I get a knot in the pit of my stomach. I don’t know where to begin!” The second person expressed a similar sentiment, confessing to more than 2,500 unread messages. Continue Reading

Responsiveness is a critical life skill. In fact, I think it may be the single most important factor to your success. People who are not responsive miss out on many opportunities. Why? Because others get tired of waiting on them.

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If you have been reading my blog for the last week or so, you know that I recently set up a Resources section on my blog. This is a place where I share some of the resources that I have found useful in my personal and professional life. These include books, podcasts, quotes, software, videos, and web tools.

These resource posts are usually not more than a paragraph long. It makes it easy for me to post one or two a day. Some of my subscribers love this sort of thing, but a few have complained. They didn’t like getting so many posts.

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In a word, yes. At least for me. I probably don’t get more than two or three voice mail messages a month. Usually, these are calls from sales people who are prospecting or automated voice mail messages (e.g., a message from Walgreen’s, letting me know that my prescription is ready).

In my experience, the problem with voice mail is two-fold: (1) it’s more difficult to retrieve a message as compared to the alternatives and (2) it’s more difficult to integrate into my workflow. I hate to listen to a rambling voice mail message. People can ramble via email, too, but email is easier to scan and determine what the sender wants.

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Last night, Gail and I went to local production of the play, “My Fair Lady.” I am embarrassed to admit that I have never seen it. I had seen clips from the movie, but I had never the watched the entire thing.

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Last week, one of my friends asked, “How do you get through all of your email. It’s killing me. I just can’t seem to get on top of it.” I know the feeling.

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Last time I checked, I was getting about 800 emails a week. That sounds like a lot, but it’s manageable. I never have more than a hundred in my inbox at any one time. My goal is to get to empty, every single day. Usually, I succeed.

Conversely, I usually get about three traditional letters a week. You know what I am talking about, right? It looks similar to an email, but it’s printed on actual paper, neatly folded and inserted into an envelope, with a real, honest-to-goodness stamp on the outside.

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Several people have written to ask how I am managing my current workflow. Most of those writing are “GTD practitioners” (inspired by David Allen’s bestseller, Getting Things Done [affiliate link]) who are specifically interested in what software tools I am using. So, I thought I would I would dedicate a post to providing an overview of my current practices.

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The use of e-mail in corporate culture is pervasive. I rarely get letters any more. Even phone calls are uncommon. But I get scores of e-mail messages every day. Yet, I am continually surprised at how people often misuse this medium.

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