24 Hours Magazine Interview About E-Mail Bankruptcy

A week or so ago, I was interviewed by Carly Krug about the evolution of e-mail and what I thought about the new trend of e-mail bankruptcy. I didn't hide my opinion about e-mail - I think it sucks in a very large and non-productive way. Of course, people don't get as much e-mail as I do. Newsletters, clients, my mother, notifications from social networking sites - and, every so often, spam. Eventually, I should hire someone to deal with nothing but my e-mail. Anyone interested? You'd have to work for peanuts and the occasional rubbing of my soft hair.

I would normally post a link to an article but, according to 24, they remove articles all the time, so, here is the full article.

You've got mail!
So what can you do about it

By CARLY KRUG, 24 HOURS

Dear person-who-sent-me-a-yet-unanswered e-mail,

I'm sorry but I'm declaring e-mail bankruptcy. Your message has been trashed. If it was urgent please resend or pick up a phone.

Rude? Unprofessional? Or simply a sign of the tech times, as more and more CEOs are calling it quits on overloaded in-boxes?

"I have a friend in Toronto with a high-tech business. He has over 5,500 things in his in-box. Or he did before Christmas ... perhaps 7,000 now," says Richard Smith, associate professor at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University.

Smith says it's no wonder people are overwhelmed by e-mails.

"It isn't surprising that faster movement means more clogs - this happens on highways. The faster people go, the faster they arrive at the same place (your inbox)," he says.

Shane Birley, a partner in Left Right Minds, a Vancouver web development, business, blogging and online content consultant company puts it more bluntly.

"E-mail sucks," he says. "It's the lazy person's way of communicating. They have this ridiculous expectation that once you send an e-mail it arrives in someone's inbox relatively instantly, which is true in most cases, but as the day goes on ... they could have hundreds waiting for them. The frustration level just grows and grows."

Add spam to the mix - "2007 is going to be the first year where spam is going to outnumber the amount of human- created e-mail," - and it's a recipe for disaster, says Birley.

So how does one avoid intentionally allowing their in box to go belly-up? Filing, deleting or acting on e-mails as soon as they come in is a good way to manage them, says Smith. His in box currently only has nine items, which constitute his "to do" list. But when they arrive by the hundreds or you return from a meeting to an in-box in the triple digits, that's not always doable.

"Perhaps popular people will have to implement a filter, akin to the personal assistant/receptionist who stood outside the office," he says.

After all, how many CEOs answer their phone? E-mail may require the same screening process.

Smith expects an entire vocation will evolve out of organizing e-life.

"Just like there are consultants that can help you with your financial bankruptcy," he says.

Birley, however, thinks e-mail will become extinct, at least for busy professionals.

"Eventually e-mail will disappear and be replaced by something else."

Perhaps, "SMS [short message service], the small text messages on phones," he says. "That's really becoming popular as a communication tool."

Birley, who receives about 150 e-mails a day, could easily spend three to four hours a day going through them. Not exactly a good use of his time, he says.

And while he has yet to go to the extreme of declaring e-mail bankruptcy he did resort to a similar tactic after returning from vacation.

"I actually grabbed my entire in box ... threw it into a sorting folder, and said 'Screw this, I'll worry about it tomorrow.'"

The problem is if tomorrow ever comes, it only brings more e-mail.

Maybe, I should invent a new way to communicate.

Tags: 24hrsmagazine, email, bankruptcy, interview, shanebirley