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Almost Fifteen years ago I first fired up an application named pine and tried to figure out what the electronic mail concept was all about. Amazing how in such a short period of time we've reached a point where a majority of Americans self-identify with the phrase "addicted to e-mail."
Or at least that's what [a new survey by AOL][1] would have us believe. The study, which surveyed 4,025 respondents 13 and older in 20 cities around the country to measure e-mail usage, contains some startling statistics, for instance:
>* 59 percent of you are checking e-mail in bed
* 53 percent in the bathroom
* 37 percent while you drive.
* 12 percent while in church.
Okay, so maybe that seems a bit obsessive, but it could be that the problem isn't obsession at all, it's simply that we haven't learned to manage our e-mail very well.
Regina Lewis, AOL Online Consumer Advisor, says in the press release that "e-mail addiction has less to do with curbing an obsession than it does with proper time and e-mail management."
There's a couple of tips listed, but they aren't going to help anyone but the most casual of users.
For some real solutions for managing your e-mail, Merlin Mann of 43Folders has the best ideas I've come across. Yesterday Mann posted a video of a recent talk he gave at the GooglePlex about how to deal with e-mail.
The talk is an outgrowth of a series which appears on 43Folders entitled "[Inbox Zero][2]," which aims to help you deal with your e-mail in an efficient and effective manner. Ordinarily I eschew any kind of formal "life-hacking" productivity tips as overly anal, but in this case Mann's ideas really are useful.
Here's the video in its entirety, a bit long but worth it.
<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=973149761529535925&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>
[2]: http://www.43folders.com/izero/
[1]: http://press.aol.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1271
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