RANTS: Email Excess

I work with plenty of fairly high-level people. I see these people's email boxes. There really is no easy way to really manage one's email. Let's think about that for a second because you may say "How hard is it to hit delete on messages you don't want?"

First, the sheer volume of email that some people receive is mind-boggling in itself. My email address is subscribed to multiple pertinent mailing lists. Some of the content from those subscriptions is interesting and I may want to read it. Then there are messages of varying importance sent, specifically, to me. These messages may or may not require action on my part beyond reading the message. But, just reading a message will take time. Then there's the spam. I'm pretty good at filtering spam without even opening the message. But, again, that takes more time. Finally, there are messages that come in the form of confirmations and acknowledgments. These messages include, but are not limited to, things like purchase and shipping confirmations.

Now take that and multiply the volume by 10 or more and remember that there are actual things that need to be done in your day besides reading and responding to email. As I said before, mind-boggling. It's no wonder that as I happen to glance at other people's subject lines, I realize that there's probably at least half of all email received by one person is not read because assumptions are made on the content (i.e. shipping confirmations). If she needed to go back to find something, she'll vaguely remember that it's in her email box.

Now will there ever be email filters or other automated processes that help us filter our messages? I'm not talking about spam filters because we know that those already work. I'm talking about filters or other tools that will help us take our electronic receipts and file them away so that we will be confident that we will be able to find them in the future? Something that will take our electronic newsletters and file them away so that when we have time to go back and read them, we will know exactly where to find them; or the message will automatically delete because I might have read about the latest mobile technology elsewhere.

At the end of the day, the closest thing these fairytale filters is an real life assistant. But, even in my dealings with people's assistants, they have too much of their own mail to handle.

What's the next management tool for email? As much as I hear that other tools will replace email, I don't think email will disappear any time soon. It's too universal, too prevalent, and we rely too much on it. I predict that he who invents this holy grail of email will make a killing. Let me get back to the drawing board...

Happy computing.