“he got hold of the wrong end of the stick and proceeded to beat about the bush with it”

~ can’t remember where I heard it!

Allen I’ll look into this. Many thanks.

Right, I’ve been out of the office for two days. Lots of scanning and deleting to do!

I just tweeted your article. You might want to try SenderOK to socially sort your email via a smart algorithm (based on how you and others have treated a particular sender before). Then you can look at your VIP folder first and Important folder after that and save your Routine folder for last. If something doesn’t even qualify for Routine, unsubscribe or make a rule that it will go directly to the Deleted Items folder next time.

An update is coming momentarily that will give you a Facebook feed into your email header pane – if the email address is the same as used for Facebook, you will see their faces and can then move the conversation onto Facebook…further reducing email overload.

The two things that made my life simpler were 1) separating work/ personal email and 2) Emails that are organised by thread.

I have an relative who doesn’t respond to any form of mail until it’s about a month old. He says most of it has solved itself by then.