E-mail Overload

My wife dislikes checking her e-mail because it takes too long to get through it all. My colleague says he receives more than 300 e-mails a day, and has a hard time finding and responding to the important messages.

E-mail traffic has increased to 11 billion per day worldwide, a threefold increase since 1999. It’s evolved from a mere means of communication to a medium we can’t seem to escape. Of course, not everybody wants to.

AOL released a survey identifying the top 20 markets for e-mail addiction. The survey looked at several factors, including number of residences with more than one e-mail account, percentage of users that check e-mail on vacation, and number of hours dedicated to e-mail. Washington, D.C., topped the list; four in 10 people there sleep with their PDAs under their pillow to make sure late-night e-mails aren’t missed. Atlanta ranked second, New York third and Miami 10th.

The Problems of Excess
Not responding to e-mails can get you into trouble, a lesson learned by the CEO of Worldcom who reportedly refused to read or respond to e-mail, and therefore was ignorant of many critical issues facing the company. He went to jail, as you may recall.

Responding to e-mails has problems, too. For instance, you never know where your e-mails might ultimately land. Poor e-mail etiquette might also aggravate colleagues. I have seen executives resend e-mails numerous times (and even call the recipient) if their e-mails are not answered immediately.

On the back end, IT professionals have to figure where to put all this information. Fort Myers-based Yacht Clubs of the Americas had to double the size of its e-mail storage in the last year, and anticipates at least doubling it again next year. My company, Synergy Networks in Fort Myers, has had to upgrade e-mail servers yearly to keep up with the burgeoning traffic flow.

The Joys of Excess
Just because I think e-mail has gone too far doesn’t mean I’m not part of the problem. I check my e-mail constantly throughout the day, almost every half an hour. If you’re like me, here are some ways to make sure you’re always in the loop:

To constantly be in contact with your e-mail, without lugging around a laptop and wireless card, you will need a PDA or smartphone, a cell phone that doubles as a minicomputer, such as Palm Treo, Motorola Q or the Apple iPhone. You can set your smartphone to constantly receive e-mail so you’re never out of touch. Make sure that when you set up the phone to receive e-mail, a copy is left on the mail server—in other words, it will still appear in your inbox when you log on to your computer. Also, make sure your e-mail is supported by a company that offers Web mail; this will allow you to log in from any computer anywhere in the world and retrieve e-mail.

Need to get your message out—and read—even faster? Text messaging on your phone takes care of that, and if you’re at your computer, try these instant-messaging services: MSN, Yahoo, ICQ or IRC (Internet Relay Chat), and if you sign up with Trillian, it will incorporate all the IM services into one.

Peter Seif has held senior positions in national communications companies and is now president of Synergy Networks.