During the work week, I have my personal and work e-mails open throughout the day and check them as needed/when I'm bored with work. But after I leave work I don't open my e-mail until the next morning. And on the weekends, I basically check my e-mail only once a day. I definitely think that when you're on your own time and out and about and spending time with family and friends, you should try to loosen the tether of technology and escape the e-mail blitz. For this reason, I refuse to get a blackberry or iphone (that, and I can't afford it -- but it sounds much cooler to insist I don't have e-mail in my phone because I simply don't need it ;-)

The "check your email only a few times a day" thing irritates me, because I feel like it's always written by people high enough on the totem pole that they actually CAN let their email go that long. My manager is forever sending stuff and then walking over to say, "Didja get that email I sent you?"

I'm like that with my house too - just touch things once, rather than moving them around from place to place. Maybe I have to be like that since I have seven kids!

I'm pretty bad w/googlemail though. When I am tired of seeing something, that on a rare occasion I don't want to deal with, I just archive everything and *viola* clean!

As a joke I checked my e-mail while reading this post and found out I sold a story! Yea for e-mail!

The best part about your post is that you have such a positive attitude about getting ahead of email. This is one of the greatest challenges---so many people feel trapped by their inbox and are constantly "at battle" with email.

One thing you might consider is to write emails and leave them in your drafts folder, and then once a day go through and hit the "send" button. This allows you to review what you wrote, but also moves away from responding instantly to email. Sometimes, it's useful to help others recognize that email is for asynchronous communication by making sure they do not get an instant response. If they do really need you, they can always pick up the phone.

I ended up just deleting both entire folders because I never responded to either of them. Oops. Hope there was nothing truly URGENT in there :)

I've vowed to clean it out before the school year starts back up again, but I said that during Winter Break too.

I'm trying to make a point of clearing stuff out or filing it by the end of the day so I don't get any more nastygrams from the email server police.

I'm also a Blackberry nerd--all 4 of my email addresses get forwarded to it.

I suffer from "i might need it at some point" syndrome. The problem is, I get so disgusted with myself and feel so yucky about it that it's worse than if I deleted something I may need some day. Isn't it amazing how any type of clutter, even cyber clutter, can weigh you down? You should see the mess that is my "bookmarks"! :)