Short and Sweet

You hardly ever pick up the phone anymore. It’s so, like, archaic. Email or instant messaging all the way. There’s only one problem. Your inbox is overflowing with unanswered messages.

Quick responses are easy, but get put off until “later.” Much later. You know you’ll spend agonizing minutes, sometimes hours, crafting witty, robust responses. Huge chunks of otherwise productive time will just disappear.

The solution? And no, it’s not to avoid them and hope they’ll go away. You’ve tried that. Respond with brevity, as suggested by Mike Davidson, CEO of Newsvine. His ingenious solution to email overload is to respond to every email in five sentences or less. To learn more, check out his blog.

You may one day experience an empty inbox, after all.