Recently in Getting Less Email Category

In the previously published essay, I took the position that quite often you don't have to reply to an email you receive. In fact, while it's frequently a knee-jerk reaction to reply - even if only to agree with someone - it's also frequently the wrong thing to do and simply clutters up everyone's inboxes and wastes your time and theirs.

That essay closed with a simple little statement:

So if you need a selfish argument, it's that only replying appropriately will, as a side effect, also reduce the amount of email you need to deal with as well.

Here's the gem hidden in that statement: it's not just about replies.

I see a lot of people asking for spam every day.

Yes, I see people asking for spam.

It's like they're putting a large sign on their virtual backside saying "Spam Me! Please!"

Oh, they don't realize that they're asking for spam, and if you asked them if that's what they want, they'd probably say "No, Definitely Not!" in the strongest of terms. And yet, I'll claim, strongly, that they're doing so. Perhaps not intentionally, but they're asking for it.

Are you?

As I reviewed the amount of email that I get, both in aggregate when I looked at last year's email, and just in passing as I deal with my day-to-day email, it occurred to me that a lot of the email I was getting was by choice, or by failing to make a choice when I had the chance. Hence, I started making some different choices, and started reducing the email I was getting.

In short, I asked the senders to stop.