email

A typical American office worker checks his email more than 50 times a day, sends or receives an instant message nearly 80 times a day and visits more than 40 different websites.

The distractions cost American businesses $650 billion a year.

If the problem is as bad in other countries, the likely cost to business in most Western countries is many billions a year.

Help is at hand, maybe, as work is being done on a system that will help users find the information they want from old emails more quickly.

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This problem is a major productivity killer and makes countless people miserable.

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Email has been getting out of hand for some time now

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People being bombarded with email all day long and now with Blackberries and other mobile phones it is moving on to 24/7

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No peace or escape for many where companies or jobs demand that employees be available 24/7

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And this is without talking about mobile call overload or intrusion

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Many are facing a total information overload

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Or put another more realistic way a total intrusion overload

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With email people need to think more about email etiquette.
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People don't know how to behave on email.

We do dumb things like copy emails to 300 of our closest friends, or there are people who phone up to check that you got their email.

That can drive people mad

So to help each other

Don’t send an email and then follow up with a text message or a phone call.

Don’t send unnecessary email

Avoid one-word replies such as "Thanks!" or "Great!"

Use "reply to all" only when absolutely necessary.

Keep your "status alert" updated so people know that you are away from your desk

Make sure your email's subject line clearly reflects its topic and urgency.

Think how you want to be treated by other emailers and do the same to .

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And do not, repeat do not, tell friends or others that they will die, drop dead or incur grave misfortune if they do not pass your message on to at least a thousand people in the next thirty seconds

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It is demeaning and insulting

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Behave with respect