Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Slow Replies to Email Questions

It has been an extremely busy few weeks (or months?) and despite extra effort, my email correspondence has quickly fallen way behind. After responding to many more today, I now have a backlog of 'only' 391 messages and questions left to answer.

6 comments:

Kenneth Lagerstrom said...

Glad I've been working on responding to the email backlog. Many more answered, but even more new ones came in. Now there are 411 messages to go.

Kenneth Lagerstrom said...

Finished answering another batch of emails, but even more came in. Now 419 messages to go.

Kenneth Lagerstrom said...

Aren't there supposed to be fewer messages after answering so many more? After answering batches more today, there are now 438 email messages to go....

Kenneth Lagerstrom said...

Woo Hoo!!! Only 114 messages left. I need coffee.

Unknown said...

I'm assuming that if you have this many messages, a lot of these are probably people writing to you to ask your advice on palmistry.

Why not lighten the e-mail load a bit, and respond to some of these people IN YOUR BLOG? If someone writes a letter asking you about something, just shoot them a message, "see my latest blog post answering this question." That way, you can kill two birds with one stone.

I am a regular reader of your blog, but always feel disappointed that there are not more posts on your subject. Now I can see why, it's because you are overwhelmed with e-mail.

I have another suggestion for you. Open three different e-mail accounts, but NOT all with the same company. I mean open ONE with google, ONE with Yahoo, and ONE with Hotmail, for example. Keep ONE of these addresses for your FRIENDS and people who are really important to you. Keep a second for your BLOG, and a third for acquaintances and subscriptions, and only check that occasionally. Check your main email (the friends one) daily. Check your blog email every one-three days. Check your subscriptions/acquaintances once every week or two. This is what I do. It keeps things a lot more manageable.

Good luck,
Margot, the Marrakesh Mystic
margotmystic.wordpress.com

Kenneth Lagerstrom said...

Good suggestions - Thanks Margot. I already use several different email addresses to keep correspondence prioritized, and have my computer set so I can view headers & download messages from any or all of my accounts at the same time.

Problem lately was many high-priority messages coming all on the same days. (Course students get responses to all their questions within 24 hours. Corporate clients get fast answers and price quotes, and reporter interviews means everything else gets bumped.)