I heard an oh-so timely story on NPR’s Morning Edition while driving to work on Monday. They were talking about the volume of email most of us receive, which for some folks (like me) is in the thousands– new or unread emails in the in-box– every day. I can sympathize with that!

They said email is still overwhelming for most people, despite the fact that phone or instant messaging has cut down on some of the email traffic. To make matters worse, some people are their own worst enemies because they use the “reply all” feature, which generates even more email. Steve Innskeep discusses this with Will Schwabe, co-author of a book about email overload, Send: The Essential Guide to E-mail for Office and Home. I know I send myself lots of “bcc” emails, mostly to create a digital paper trail so I have proof I sent something of importance to a vendor or an employee. I also sign up for discussion lists and newsletters with the best of intentions to stay informed, but then struggle to find time to read them. Guess I’m guilty as charged. When I’m done clearing out my overflowing in-box after just one day out of the office, I’ll have to see if this book has any useful tips I might share here.

They also said companies like Yahoo are thinking of email as a social network, since we tend to regularly email the same family members and co-workers. I’d have to agree with that, too. Years ago, we had a nasty email virus at work that replicated itself through people’s address books. What tipped me off that something weird was happening were the empty ‘messages’ from library staff I didn’t usually correspond with. I cautiously opened their messages but not their attachments (since I wasn’t expecting any from them) and was lucky enough not to catch or spread the virus.