Email Debt

I'm in Email Debt. Deep, deep email debt. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about? If you're a
friend of mine, I'm certain you do. Because chances are good that you sent me a lovely, thoughtful
email in the recent past (this millennium), and I failed to respond in a timely manner. Or ever. I am truly
sorry.

I have the feeling I'm not alone. The other day I heard Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on NPR's Fresh Air
with Terry Gross (http://www.npr.org/2011/02/16/133775340/twitters-biz-stone-on-starting-a-
revolution). He said a lot that was interesting to me, but one comment stood out in particular: "I get so
many emails per day, I'll occasionally do what's called declaring email bankruptcy, which is I just delete
everything in my email and I tell people if you had anything important, please resend. I just give up
because I see hundreds and hundreds of emails - some of them stretching back a month and I know that
it's too late to do whatever that person needed me to do."

I just haven't mastered dealing with email. I read every single one that comes from a genuine human. (I
do not read all my spam. That would be silly.) I have 3 main categories of emails - my inbox, active
business and active personal. My inbox contains what I received in the past few days. I try not to use
my inbox as a to do list. Instead I try to respond to all emails the same day I get them and then move the
received emails to "processed". As of this moment, my inbox is completely empty. But then again, it's
1:46 AM where I live. It won't be long before they start streaming in again.

My "active" folders are messages I haven't dealt with but want to take action on. I'm embarrassed to
tell you how many messages are in there. But this blog is all about telling my truth, so I'll share: 337
business and 514 personal. Horrifying. (If you are represented in one of these categories, please refer
back to my apology from the first paragraph).

For the past month I've been trying to handle 10 "active" messages a day. My thought was that in a
month and a half I would have worked my way out of email debt, at least in the business category. Then
I could start tackling personal. But with all the new emails coming in constantly, I've only eliminated
around 50 active messages.

As bothered as I am about this situation, I'm unwilling to make email a higher priority than family, client
service, marketing or self-care. Is it time for me to declare email bankruptcy? Anyone have any other
suggestions about how to deal with email backlog? Anyone else struggling with this one? I'd really
appreciate your comments below. (Please, please don't send your suggestions via email). :)