The NPR Morning Edition has aired two segments in the last week or so on email overload; Businesses Find Ways to Manage E-Mail Overload on February 2nd and Overcoming E-Mail Overload at Work on February 9th. Both segments last about five minutes and discuss the ways business users are trying to cope with the barrage of email they receive. This morning’s segment has an interview with John Porcaro from Microsoft; we linked to his post on Microsoft Email Culture a couple of weeks ago. The most interesting fact came from the February 2nd segment (we’re paraphrasing here):
The average business user receives 16,000 messages a year. What else do we do 16,000 times a year? Blink. Basically, we live for email.
Fascinating. Both segments are posted on their site and worth a listen. There are also some decent tips on handling email posted alongside the February 9th audio file.