POLL: e-mail habits

Worked a lot on my novel yesterday, yay! Felt good.

Scott came over last night with some DVDs. We got Swiss Chalet take-out (I also got coconut cream pie because writing yesterday's Blathering made me crave some) and watching "The Insider", which Jeff and I hadn't seen before. Really great movie! Loved Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

He also loaned us Blade, One Night At McCool's, L.A. Confidential, and Magnolia.

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In general, I spend far less time in e-mail than I did in my Inkspot days, both personal and business. I've been gradually moving over my older Blatherings archives into Movable Type format, and it's been enlightening for me to read through some of the older entries. I was horrified, for example, to see a casual mention that I had received over 1000 e-mails one day, and that I came home from a canoe trip to find nearly 5000 e-mails waiting. I'm sure that helped contribute to my general stress puppy nature back then.

I am aware that my recent experience in the corporate world soured me on e-mail in general. I remember months of dreading opening my e-mail rather than anticipating it because inevitably there would be something nasty waiting. Like many others around me at work, I began using e-mail as a defense and pre-emptive strike rather than just for simple communication; I kept copies of everything to prove what had been said and what hadn't and became an expert in the psychology of cc:ing and bcc:ing. As a result of all this, however, e-mail became a negative rather than a positive experience.

As time passes and I get fewer Xlibris/corporate-related e-mails, I don't dread my e-mail as much anymore. But I still don't spend nearly as much time e-mailing as I used to, even for personal stuff. I've had to drop a number of personal correspondences as a result (and cut down on the rest), which is a sad thing. On the other hand, I spend more time working on my own writing (both nonfiction and fiction) than I ever did before, and also see more of my friends face-to-face than I did before, which is a good thing.

I make a conscious effort to stay offline in the evenings....as a result, I'm spending more time with Jeff, reading, my songwriting. According to my current Eudora statistics, I now receive an average of 31 e-mails/day (including mailing lists and spam), send an average of 13/day, spending less than an hour on e-mail a day.

I still enjoy the idea of e-mail, especially since it enables me to keep in contact with people I normally only see a few times a year. But the whole corporate experience as well as the emotional hardships I've gone through in the past couple years have helped me better appreciate the value of offline communication and interactions as well.

I'd be interested in hearing stats from any other Eudora Pro users out there. In fact, why not turn this into a poll...

Today's Poll:
What are your e-mail habits?

How many times do you check e-mail a day? Do you tend to get more work-related e-mail, more personal e-mail, or about even? Have your e-mail habits changed over the years? Are most your of your personal friendships kept up through e-mail? Do you tend to like or dislike e-mail in general? Please answer in Blatherchat.

Today's Blatherpic

- Jeff buying a snazzy new mouse in a computer store for computer gaming.