Deliver Us From E-mail

Written by Jeff Large

This article courtesy of Living with Teenagers.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 31 billion e-mails worldwide are sent each day. Doesn’t it sometimes feel like most of those e-mails are delivered to your box? The bad news is that the number of e-mails is expected to double by 2006.

 So how can you and your teens reduce the amount of e-mail you receive and better manage your e-mail boxes? Here are six ideas to help deliver you from e-mail.

1. Get Organized. Create folders for e-mails you want to keep. Organize the folders by relationships or topics of interests, such as vacations, church items, and friends. Create a holding folder for e-mails that are in question. By creating folders and using specific subject headers, you can easily turn your computer into an efficient filing cabinet for
e-mail.

2. Take action. Take action with every e-mail you receive. Mark Breier, the author of The 10-second Internet Manager, says to either respond immediately to e-mail, delegate it to someone, delete it, or hold it. Try not to handle each incoming e-mail more than once before taking action on it.

3. Can the Spam. Many of the e-mails coming to your in box are spam—those unwelcome and unwanted messages. Some online services and Internet service providers have tools to help you block spam, and many e-mail programs have blocking tools as well. These are not fail-safe options, but they can reduce the spam you receive.

4. Delete, delete, delete. The majority of your e-mail does not need to be saved. Depending on the volume you receive, spend time regularly deleting e-mail. Comb through your folders often to get rid of messages you don't need anymore. Whenever possible, read each e-mail once and then delete it. If you do this regularly, you'll have far less e-mail clutter.

5. Don’t use e-mail. The first step in managing e-mail is realizing when not to use it. E-mail can often waste more time than it saves. If you think you might have to e-mail back and forth more than twice to resolve an issue, just pick up the phone and call. Also, don’t e-mail an urgent message unless you are sure the person checks e-mail regularly.

6. Create two (or more) e-mail accounts. Use one e-mail account for general use like work or school. The second account could be similar to an unlisted number that you give to only select people. Many Internet Service Providers offer multiple e-mail accounts. MSN.com and Yahoo.com offer free Web-based e-mail accounts.

Site Seeing
EveryStudent.com is a “safe place to explore issues about college, life, and what it might be like to know God.” This is an evangelistic Web site that explores questions and issues older students may have about faith, life, and relationships. If you know teens who are “seekers,” encourage them to check out this site.

(Due to the changing nature of the Internet, Web sites may vary in content over time. Always be alert when going to new Web sites.)

Jeff Large is a Lead Online Editor for LifeWay.com. A former youth pastor, Jeff and his wife, Alice, have three children.

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