How many emails do you get each day?

[disneysteve]

In the "time is money" department...

Just out of curiosity, I took note of how many emails I received yesterday. There were 85 plus about 10 that went straight to my spam folder. So that was 95 messages that needed at least a couple seconds each of my attention. Of course, there were quite a few that took a lot more time than that, needed to be read, files downloaded, responses sent, etc. So even if I averaged 30 seconds per message, that's over 45 minutes of my day spent dealing with email. And I know there are days when I get a lot more messages. Even 30 minutes a day would be 182 hours per year or the equivalent of about 5 weeks of work. It's really disturbing when you start looking at it in those terms.

Don't get me wrong. I love email. I think it's a great way to communicate and it is far faster and more convenient than phone calls for most stuff. But to think that I'm spending a couple hundred hours every year on email is just a little hard to process.

I know it's probably futile but I'm going to start trying to wean it down a bit. I do get a number of professional emails that I really don't need. I'll see if I can unsubscribe from any of them. There are also some other assorted things like travel newsletters, store promotions, and things like that that I could easily do without. I usually just delete them but I'm going to start checking to see if there is a way to stop receiving them entirely. Maybe I'll find a few dozen extra hours in my year.

[feh]

I have 4 active email accounts. I receive dozens of emails every day.

I'm not complaining. It's a very effective medium for communicating.

[disneysteve]

I'm not complaining. It's a very effective medium for communicating.

I agree. I'm just realizing how much of the email I get every day really isn't necessary. I'd love to eliminate that part of it.

[feh]

I agree. I'm just realizing how much of the email I get every day really isn't necessary. I'd love to eliminate that part of it.

Every couple months I make a point of examining each email I receive; if it's something that ends up in my mail box daily or weekly and I find myself automatically hitting delete, I unsubscribe.

That does a pretty good job of keeping the clutter down.

[ua_guy]

Important emails that need attention and immediate analysis and a formal response...Maybe 5-7.

Then, maybe another 5-10 where I'm included on a thread, whether it needs my attention or not, but I'm mostly just along for the ride--with the potential that it could end up in my lap.

Automated / file delivery confirmation / confirmations of other system actions - literally hundreds.

Then there's professional newsletters and other "junk" mail. A few of those every week...our spam filter is pretty good here.

I can't stand a cluttered inbox and I try to clear it every day. Only the items that are hot and need immediate response/ action stay in there. Everything else gets moved/unread/ filed, and I use automated rules to manage and place a lot of those. If there's something important in that batch of stuff, the pager (yes, a pager, my employer is stuck in 1995) goes off. The automated ones get moved and filed away without me looking at them--they're there in case I need to go back and diagnose a problem.

In the age of email, sometimes a quick in-person chat or a phone call seems more efficient. I know I've been guilty of ignoring certain emails to quell drama. Sometimes the problem evaporates--or if it's a real problem, someone will come find me and specifically request action from me.

[rennigade]

You think emails are bad...imagine how many hours are wasted on sites like this every single year..although this site is more on the educational part which is a positive.

I have a bunch of gmail accounts but only have 4 linked up to my iphone. I only receive around 10-15 emails a day, most of which are nonsense that with a swipe of the finger can be deleted.

My work email I maybe receive 30 emails a day.

[disneysteve]

You think emails are bad...imagine how many hours are wasted on sites like this every single year.

I have no idea what you mean.

[disneysteve]

So far today, I've done 6 unsubscribe requests and will keep doing them at every opportunity. I'm very curious to see how much of a difference it makes.

[ginene]

I have 4 different email accounts. One is for important things and I only get about 3 per day. My other emails are for family and contests. I usually just click all and delete unless I am looking for coupons that day or savings info.

[bjl584]

I probably get somewhere around 75 emails a day at work

[disneysteve]

I'm up to 13 unsubscribe requests today. Some have said that it takes anywhere from 2 to 10 days to take effect but hopefully over the next couple of weeks, I'll see the email volume drop noticeably.

ETA: Now at 16 unsubscribe requests for the day.

[rennigade]

I sometimes get emails in my primary accounts that I too have to unsubscribe to. With that being said...this can be minimized by having a "dummy" email address. Whenever I have to enter an email I use my dummy/spam email accounts. With those accounts I dont even bother deleting emails since they are non important.

[disneysteve]

I sometimes get emails in my primary accounts that I too have to unsubscribe to. With that being said...this can be minimized by having a "dummy" email address. Whenever I have to enter an email I use my dummy/spam email accounts. With those accounts I dont even bother deleting emails since they are non important.

I might have to do that. I have a few email accounts that I don't use. Maybe I should just start using one of them for things that aren't important.

[bigdaddybus]

As a career IT guy, I suggest you stop unsubscibing and just move junk emails to your junk/spam folder.

Unsubsciption requests are a great way for spammers to determine which email addresses they spam are active accounts.

[disneysteve]

As a career IT guy, I suggest you stop unsubscibing and just move junk emails to your junk/spam folder.

Unsubsciption requests are a great way for spammers to determine which email addresses they spam are active accounts.

The emails I'm talking about aren't spam. They are legitimate messages from real companies that I have some type of connection to. I just don't want or need to get their emails.

Also, marking them as spam doesn't lessen how many emails I get every day. It just puts them in a different folder which I still then need to read through because not everything that goes into the spam folder is actually spam. I still need to review them so that I don't miss important messages that got in there incorrectly.

So far, I've done 27 unsubscribe requests. I hope this helps.