After checking my emails this morning (despite it being a bank holiday) I discovered I have a new internet ID, the rather catchy sounding 'Inbox 4000'
Yes, that's right, just as I'm about to start a summer of archaeological fieldwork I realise that there are a mere 4,000 emails requiring my immediate attention. On average I receive between 300 and 400 emails a day. That may sound as if I'm extremely popular
Trust me, I'm not
The majority of messages are spam, but, hidden within them are meeting requests (many many meeting requests), academic reminders, endless pieces professional advice, student queries and the odd (sometimes very odd) personal message. It's the student queries and personal messages that I try to weed out first and answer, whilst the rest either get deleted or relegated to a 'read-respond-later' limbo.
Evidently it's that read-respond-later limbo that is expanding (at a quite ridiculous rate). I'm not convinced that there's really enough time in the world to read (or indeed respond to) the outstanding 4,000. Perhaps I should just delete them on the assumption that either they're spam (and can therefore be safely be ignored) or, if not, then it's simply too late to reply or do anything. Perhaps I should leave them and see how many more I accumulate by the end of August, when archaeological fieldwork comes to an end.
Who knows, by then I may be 'Inbox 10,000'
Delete, delete, delete: Never ever read emails for that way madness lies
ReplyDeleteApologies, I did not read your reply until now (8 months later) - still, I guess that's the point.... :) Bring on the madness!
Delete