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Why I Emptied my Email Inbox?

For 2012, I resolved to keep my email inbox empty.  You might ask, “Why would anyone consider taking on such a challenge?”

The reason is simple: I feel like I have been losing the battle with my email . . . and it doesn’t seem to be getting better and there is data to support this uneasy feeling.  According to The Radicati Group’s Survey: Corporate Email, 2011-2012:

The number of emails sent per day continues to increase, despite growing use of social networking and instant messaging. In 2010 users were receiving an average of 72 emails per day, and sending an average of 33 emails per day.

The data is alarming, but what is more concerning is Read more

Save Our Inboxes! Adopt the Email Charter

This is as much about your personal effectiveness as a professional as it is a benefit to the universe. The Email Charter has some great recommendations for reducing the overall volume of email at the macro-level which can be applied to the individual-level, as well.  I’ve included a few other recommendations of my own here:

  1. Schedule time on your calendar to process all of the messages in your email inbox.  Your goal each week is to leave the office on Friday with an empty inbox!
  2. Don’t mistake your email inbox for a “to do” list (or worse) a project management tool.
  3. Professional relationships are not built via email.  Do you spend time face-to-face with the people who can help you be a successful professional– clients, managers, mentors?

The Email Charter was created in response to widespread acknowledgement that email is getting out of hand for many people. It started life as a blog post by TED Curator Chris Anderson and TED Scribe Jane Wulf. The idea struck a chord. More than 45,000 people read the post and it generated hundreds of tweets, comments and suggestions. That is how the final Charter was shaped. Some of the key contributors are listed here.

The Charter is a private, non-commercial initiative, a simple ‘idea worth spreading’.