My Email Dilemma by T.L. Wiens

How many emails do you get a day? I’m swamped with them.

I have several email accounts that serve different purposes. Each one has enough emails in the day to take up all my email reading time.

It was wonderful when I figured out how to stop getting sites like Facebook sending me updates. That really cleaned up my personal email. But I still can’t keep up. Some of the emails to tell me about updates from another site are handy. But when you belong to a few groups here and there, the numbers become staggering. I seldom have a day with less than a hundred emails. I usually have at least 1500 a week.

I love belonging to groups like Inscribe but I have to say, the emails drive me crazy. It seems there are many threads which could be sent directly to the person. I’m glad we like to congratulate each other and let people know we’re reacting to their emails but could this be done on a private level rather than on the listserv?

Then there are the private emails that shouldn’t be on the listserv. If I want to talk to a specific person about a specific matter, I do it privately. It’s not only that it isn’t the right place for such a request, you never know when this request put out for all to see comes across as rude to another reader. I’ve had it happen when I’ve offered something to someone, they’ve ignored my offer and asked another person on the listserv for the very same favour.

Many people say (especially my husband) but you don’t need to read every message. That’s true but how do I know which ones do contain important information? Sometimes the subject of one thread is carried into a second thread.

With so many social media outlets these days and writers being told they must participate in these to be successful, we need to be aware of how we’re impacting our audience. I know for me, there are certain books I won’t read because my email has been flooded by an author.

We need to communicate with each other and our audience. I try to be respectful, aware where I’m sending my emails and how that social media will remind their readers about that message. I weigh the message of my emails and select the address accordingly.

I long for the day when I open my inbox and don't see a four digit number.