Dennis Kennedy

Dealing with email can get you down. In one of the key moments in Internet history, Larry Lessig famously declared email bankruptcy, announcing that he had gotten so far behind in answering email that he was simply going to start over fresh.

It's a tempting thought - and something I've given a lot of thought to lately. There are undoubtedly several of you now reading this post from whom I have an email that needs a reply. I've been describing my inbox as a cringe-inducing zone

However, Anne Zelenka has some great suggestions to reduce the burden and offers some promising alternatives to declaring email bankruptcy in her post "Before You Declare Email Bankruptcy."

One of Anne's suggestions makes the money quote:

Create a folder or label named with a date in the future, maybe a week or so, or two days if that’s the most you can stand. Move everything from your inbox into there. On that day, look at the messages. Do you need to respond to them now? Many of them no longer require a response, having been already dealt with or made obsolete by intervening events.

That's all true, but the best advice in her post might be to open up other options for people to connect with you outside of email.

The email bankruptcy option, however, remains an enticing one, especially in weak moments.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

Learn more about legal technology at Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Central page.

Technorati tags: legal technology email bankruptcy email