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How Many Unread E-mails Do You Have In Your Inbox?

By Cindy Westfall

Real Estate Agent with Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon

January 22, 2013 06:34 AM

How Many Unread E-mails Do You Have In Your Inbox?

I was out with the other night when I passed my phone over to a friend to read and e-mail and she did this huge gasp and let out a loud OMG!!! I'm thinking this is really a bit of How Many Unread E-mails Do You Have In Your Inbox? drama to the e-mail she was reading when she looked up at me and said "You have over 200 unread e-mails!!" She was in total shock as to how anyone could have this many. To her, this was utter clutter and totally unexeptable.

So this morning I'm watching the today show where they did a segmant on this very thing called "What does your e-mail inbox say about you?" Apparently...there are two types of people. Those that NEED to open and deal with each and every e-mail as soon as they get them, and those like me who will scan them and go back and open up and deal with the ones needing attention.The others I then say I'll go back in and delete or file as I get the chance.

The segment noted that neither one is better than the other it's just more a matter of personality. It was said that those that NEED to check and open every e-mail and have very little in their inbox tend to be very structured in their lives and see the smaller pictures is things while those like me that take their time in doing this are more person sending an e-mail apt to see the bigger picture.

Since this was something that was brought to my attention twice in this past week, I decided it was a sign so went in and checked my own e-mail account to see see where I stood.

Outlook: 1,142 e-mails and with 73 of these unread

G-Mail: I now have 7...but this account mirrors my Outlook account so I have doubles of everything. I went in today and deleted well over 1000 e-mails.

Yahoo: I can't tell how many I have in there read, but it's showing I have 1,662 unread! I have e-mails in here going back to 2008!!! This is my account where I get my personal stuff as well as the e-mail I use when I sign up for things so they don't intermingle with my work.

I've been working on getting organized and getting systems set into place...but these things take time so tend to get put off. Seeing the bigger picture is one thing...being out of control with my e-mails is quite another. The one area I am good with (thank goodness) is making sure all my corrospondence pertaining to my transactions do get filed away at the end of the day. It's all those other e-mails. Is it feasable to clean up all three of these sites every day? Perhaps I should go for once a week?

How many e-mails do you have in your inbox? Do you have systems on keeping these organized? Please share! I am worried that it's intervention time!

PS: for those that NEED to clean up their e-mail emmediately, I apologize for getting your heart rate up after reading my numbers.

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Tammie White, Broker

Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN

Franklin TN Homes for Sale

I'm one of those only open what I need to which usually pertains to transactions. I do try to delete as many as possible but we get so much spam mail, it's hard to keep up.

Jan 22, 2013 06:53 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Sophia...sure, rub it in :) Apparently there are a lot of you out there...who knew?

Jan 22, 2013 07:02 AM

Christine Adler

FindAHomeWithMe.com - Fort Lauderdale, FL

SE Palm Beach, Broward & NE Miami-Dade Counties FL

It's always a battle to keep it cleaned up - I do use Outlook for my business emails, but Windows Mail for my personal. However, they both need a little cleaning up I noticed, after I read your post! I try to make folders and read the necessary emails and act upon them right away - but with social media, I have tons that I don't really pay attention to as much as I should. I glance through them for action items - people requesting that I like them, answering posts, etc. but the rest I let slide until more time. Time to clean them up!

Jan 22, 2013 07:14 AM

Dale Bledsoe

Crown Key Realty - Tracy, CA

Realtor in Tracy, California

Very interesting. I am a scanner like you, but once I start deleting the junk I can really narrow the inbox down.

Jan 22, 2013 07:15 AM

Debbie Reynolds, C21 Platinum Properties

Platinum Properties- (931)771-9070 - Clarksville, TN

The Dedicated Clarksville TN Realtor-(931)320-6730

Cindy, I am terrible at keeping emails in queue. I cleaned up my outlook last week and had over 7000. Shame on me.

Jan 22, 2013 07:45 AM

Rob D. Shepherd

RETIRED - Florence, OR

RETIRED

I open them a few times a day and usually deal with them then. If I have I bunch that I think aren't that important I deal with them later in the day.

Jan 22, 2013 08:13 AM

Bob Stewart

ActiveRain - Seattle, WA

ActiveRain Ambassador

I refuse to answer how many. It borders on embarrassing.

I'm definitely not an 'inbox zero' guy.......never will be. It's impossible. If I tried I would never sleep. I can accept that (finally.......it took a while)

Jan 22, 2013 08:27 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Tammie, Yep...that's me as well. Obviously I need to give this more time in my week to keep it from getting out of control. Always something!

Hi Christine, After my friend almost went into apoplezy, I figured I better take a look myself. I too was shocked at the numbers!

Jan 22, 2013 09:12 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Dale, So far the easiest way I've found to clean up my Outlook is to move things to the "from" format. This way I can just delete lots of e-mails at the same time. This is especially good for the social media stuff. I still need to do this though.

Jan 22, 2013 09:15 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Debbie, OK..thank you! I feel suddenly better :)

Jan 22, 2013 09:16 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Rob, You at least deal with them every day. I'm not quite sure if I could pull that off, but it's always a goal

Jan 22, 2013 09:17 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Bob, I can't even begin to fathom how many e-mails you receive in a day! One would have to be extremely vigilant or like you've done...kinda run with it in order to sleep. Sleep is good! They add up sooooo quickly.

Jan 22, 2013 09:20 AM

Will Hamm

Hamm Homes - Aurora, CO

"Where There's a Will, There's a Way!"

Cindy, you could be my sister, I do not open every email until I have time and that is not to often.

Jan 22, 2013 10:16 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Will....er brother! I gotta say, since I was going through my mail, I forgot to check my spam inbox on my G-Mail account and when going through it I found that even though most was junk, there were three e-mails that weren't. Need to check this more often as my Outlook must have a stronger filter so they never don't get to the spam area there.

Jan 22, 2013 10:41 AM

Tammy Lankford,

Lane Realty Eatonton, GA Lake Sinclair, Milledgeville, 706-485-9668 - Eatonton, GA

Broker GA Lake Sinclair/Eatonton/Milledgeville

well I have less accounts and NEVER ever even use or check the yahoo anymore. And I have zero unread.... but well I have thousands in folders.

Jan 22, 2013 11:53 AM

Rose King

David Tracy Real Estate - Friendswood, TX

Friendswood / Pearland / Houston Bay Area

Hi Cindy. Like you, I have a separate email address for personal stuff. That inbox is always full of unread emails, because all of the junk mail goes to that address, and I don't look at it regularly. It's just too much to keep up with!

Jan 22, 2013 02:04 PM

Jill Sackler

Charles Rutenberg Realty Inc. 516-575-7500 - Long Beach, NY

LI South Shore Real Estate - Broker Associate

Ha! Finally, something we don't have in common. I'm of the former variety. Those that NEED to open and deal with each and every e-mail as soon as they get them.

Jan 22, 2013 11:21 PM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Tammy, folders are my only saving grace when it comes to transactions and some e-mails that I know I might want to look at the info later...like contractor info, etc. The others I just need to take the time to go through and delete!

Jan 23, 2013 01:04 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Rose, I had to go through yesterday and unsubscribe to lots of sites that seem to send at least two e-mails a day. I figure when I want to use their services or shop at the stores, I'll check their website for the current sales and such. They fill up my inbox and I never open them.

Jan 23, 2013 01:07 AM

Cindy Westfall

Premiere Property Group,LLC Portland Metro & Suburbs Oregon - Tualatin, OR

ABR,GRI Your Tualatin & Portland Metro Real Estate

Hi Jill, LOL, I do envy you in being able to do that. One of the things I am constantly working on is organization. I just installed several shelving units to finally pull things out of boxes that I have in a storage area, set up my areas for my work items and now have about 4 bags full of shredded documents from my old company that I can't use any longer and just have around. All this stuff takes time...which I usually don't allot for, so have been making this a priority.

Jan 23, 2013 01:11 AM