If you are anything like me, you get a lot of email. It’s
really unfortunate how much time we waste on email.
Going shopping has become its own vice. It seems I can’t go
anywhere where a clerk is not asking for my email. Shopping online is clearly obvious
since most logins to websites are simply your email address.
But if you also volunteer for an organization you probably have
noticed an uptick in the emails you receive. Many of the not for profit
organizations use email as the standard for communication. Clearly, I am not
saying anything new. It’s cheap, its fast, and they can distribute to a lot of
people with very little effort. Again, there is a lack personal communication
that is quickly becoming the norm in our society, and that is unfortunate. What
happened to “let’s go for lunch and chat for a bit”? (sigh) Not only that, but
when you are inundated with a certain form of communication, you become desensitized
to it over time. I am of the opinion that volunteer organizations (especially
churches…) in particular should really think about how they handle email
distributions. By not communicating
EFFECTIVELY, organizations run the risk of becoming INEFFECTIVE….
Well, over the years it has become clear that I can’t seem
to do much about the amount of email I receive AND still be a significant part
of an organization. And, if I am honest, email is an excellent way to keep
track of packages that I have ordered. But I shouldn’t have to sift through
EVERY email each day, because most of them are not informative at the time. So
I decided to alter my email habits. This may not be revolutionary for many of
you, but I use multiple email accounts. In fact, I have more than 4 email
accounts. (Gasp!)
Below is a list and description of the “types” of email
accounts that I use.
Work email – This is clearly obvious. It’s the account where
I spend 40+ hours of my day. Very rarely does this account get out to those who
do not have a professional relationship with me. Of course, it’s not absolute,
but that is the primary function for this account.
Personal email – I have had this account for years. I cherish
this email. I protect it from all things spam. My intent is when I open this
account, people that I am close to are sending me information that they
consider important to me.
Spam email – Again, this one is nothing new. I have no doubt
many of you have a bogus email that when a clerk asks for an email address you
give them this one.
Volunteer email – this one is new for me over the last few
years. I added this account because I work with church organizations, and
having this information come into my personal account was starting to create
almost its own version of spam: “sign up for this!”, “don’t forget about the
event this week…”, “are you available for…” “here is the daily bible reading…”
So, if you have a job, and you shop, and you are part of a volunteer organization, and you do pretty
much anything else that requests your email, how can you manage multiple accounts
if you choose to go this route? From my perspective you have at least 4
options:
- You can log into them separately on a set frequency.
- Primarily use your phone (smartphone), and set up your accounts on it. Most smart phones will handle multiple accounts.
- Forward all your email accounts to one.
- You could use a program like outlook or Thunderbird for Mozilla to have your accounts go to, and have them populate into different folders. You simply set up the rules for the different accounts coming in (i.e. johndoe@gmail.com goes to the gmail folder, johndoe@yahoo.com goes to the yahoo folder, etc.) and then you are only checking one spot. Also, most major email providers like gmail, yahoo!, etc. provide this feature as well.
Anyway, this is how I tend to handle email. It’s not
perfect, and I definitely don’t hold a strict line to managing my email
accounts. How about you? How do you handle email?
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