* Many users say they suffer from e-mail overload
We recently conducted a study among e-mail end users and found that nearly 50% of users report that they suffer from e-mail overload at least ‘fairly often’ – 6% of users experience e-mail overload ‘all the time’. The situation is likely to get worse as unified communications systems become more common. Instead of being overloaded by just e-mail in your inbox, you’ll now have voice mails, instant messages popping up based on your presence information, greater use of rich media and other content that will demand your attention.
We recently conducted a study among e-mail end users and found that nearly 50% of users report that they suffer from e-mail overload at least ‘fairly often’ – 6% of users experience e-mail overload ‘all the time.’ The situation is likely to get worse as unified communications systems become more common. Instead of being overloaded by just e-mail in your inbox, you’ll now have voice mails, instant messages popping up based on your presence information, greater use of rich media and other content that will demand your attention.
A recent article claimed that many people are declaring ‘e-mail bankruptcy’ and simply starting over by dumping the contents of their inbox, although the term ‘e-mail bankruptcy’ was actually coined several years ago. I believe that this notion points out the dichotomy in the way that e-mail is viewed:
* Some view e-mail solely as a communications medium designed to transmit information from person A to person B, with the expectation that person B will act on the information and then move on.
* Others, myself included, consider e-mail much more holistically, viewing it as both a communications tool and as a repository of useful information that can be accessed at a later date. For example, as an analyst, I receive lots of e-mail about product announcements and related types of content. While I don’t respond to every announcement, I save all of it, since I can search for what I need at a later date. In this ‘worldview’ of e-mail, an inbox is a huge database of content that you can add to at will, and that I can search whenever I need to do so.
I believe that we need to view e-mail and unified communications systems as more akin to databases than communications tools. An e-mail system, coupled with very good search tools and robust archival technologies, can be an extraordinarily powerful tool that simply doesn’t need to cause the overload that many claim it does.
I’d like to get your thoughts on this – please send me an e-mail with your views.
