re: Unread work emails. How do you people function? I read all of my work emails

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I’m not important enough to get work emails

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This post inspired me to knock out my 214 unread emails. They have been annoying me, but I knew that most of them were bullshite. There ended up being two that were useful for ongoing projects, and 3 more that involve things that I wanted to add to our specifications. The other 209 were, indeed, old bullshite, but it feels good finally getting back to zero unread.

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I read all of my work emails

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Do you really?

I get maybe 100 work emails a day and I definitely don’t read them all. Most of them are internal system generated emails, random memos that don’t pertain to me or replies to old email chains that I no longer need to be in engaged in.

I actually read less than half of what I get. The rest is handled with outlook rules and quick scans to get to a zero inbox (I make sure I have no unread at the end of the day).

A lot of people have outlook configured in a way that they’re actually working out of the preview function rather than technically opening the email.

So it doesn’t get marked as read.

I read every email I get, but unless I actually open the email, the little counter of unread emails keep climbing.

I can see how some OCD types would get annoyed by the unread counter, but it doesn’t actually mean anything.

F: ANN
CC: 10 people + me
RE: There is cake in the breakroom
1: who brought the cake
2: who's birthday is it
Ann to 1: Joe brought it
Ann to 2: it's Kate's birthday
3: what kind of cake?
4: looks like chocolate, yum :)
Ann to 3: Its from Publix
5: I love Publix Cake
Repeat until all parties ask a question with multiple responses.
25+ emails about a Publix sheetcake in the breakroom.
True story,

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But work emails...I just can't fathom going an entire day, days, or weeks and knowing there have been people in a professional business setting sending me information of some kind and just not reading it.

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If I answered every question, text, email, phone call etc I received, I would never stop working and wouldn’t make enough money.

In my line of work, people are constantly asking you for something. They aren’t providing any information, if you ask them for more information or otherwise clarify they are a bottleneck, they become non responsive.

To be clear, I look at just about every work email, but not always. I have so much clutter I’m not sure how I could ever catch up or stay on top. I typically give much more thoughtful responses that are given to me, and I don’t consider reading all of my emails an accomplishment.

Honestly I’m pretty exhausted with the amount of messages I get - and the amount of spam involved has cranked up in the last 3-4 years to the point that I have to decide what takes priority and just have to hope that can be appreciated

It's called O-H-I-O. Only Handle It Once.

It's easy. Read it then File it, Answer it or Delete it. You only keep it in your inbox if it needs to remind you to follow up again in the next twenty four hours ir less.

I would lose my ever loving mind if I had a thousand emails in my inbox? I think I have 8.

When you get behind on them just right click on your inbox and select mark all as read. If it was important enough they'll follow up or hit you up on Teams

When I was promoted someone took over my old email. I walk by her desk sometimes and she’s created all these folders. Thousands of emails left on unread. It bothers the shite out of me.

First thing I do every morning is sit down and delete emails at my government job.