No problem Daphne — I just sent it out. Let me know if you don’t get it.

And guess what? The brain LOVES being a hurdle-jumper. That’s why email is so hard to resist.

You make a very good point about the need to manage ourselves. I also like the way you differentiate between shallow and meaningful responses.

Whack-a-mole is a great metaphor for email!

Thanks, Louise. I’ve never given it a try and would love to. Would you mind sending me a link?

You are right about email being a time sink.

But as in all time management situations, we can’t manage time – an intangible – we can only manage ourselves. That means setting priorities based on our values.

Some email should never be opened and never read because it’s valueless spam. We learn by experience how to judge the credibility of incoming messages. I’ve purged my inbox by doing the following:

1. Protect my email address. If you are blogging or have any social accounts, there are ways to encrypt your email from spam harvesters.

2. Don’t sign up on freebie, give-away websites. They will spam you to death.

3. Take the time to unsubscribe to repetitive emails that you don’t want to receive. That is email spam by definition. Unwanted and unneeded.

4. Use a “catchall” email account and only signup for things you want. A catchall account allows you to “code” emails with something like “spam@yourname.com” or “purekrap@yourname.com”. This helps flag crummy junk. Or use a temporary email account, called: disposable temporary email addresses. Google that and you’ll find many services online.

5. On occasion, don’t be afraid to change your email address or use filters to block unwanted emails.

I don’t consider it a sin to check email first thing in the morning. Especially if your email is your source of income and for shipping products. Or just feeding your brain – like with email from Publication Coach!

There are times when long emails are appropriate. This is where some of my foundation for new articles come from: my own outbound “recycled” emails. Some topics and people are worth a long reply.

I’m replying here online and not just saying, “Nice article” or “Thanks” which is a shallow response.

If we, your loyal audience, want to payback, we should consider not sending you a personal email. Posting here helps give your site some SEO traction and indicates a degree of readership interest to others. That is good applause. It’s a commitment of time – a precious commodity. An investment.