I see your point about the follow up issue, and it's true – I don't always
hold my response. I have found though that it definitely does help slow down
replies from people who email me too much. Lately that hasn't been so
difficult as I have just been throwing anything not urgent into review
nightly, review Saturday or re view optional!

To answer the question about where all my email comes from, I get a *lot* of
unsolicited and “one off” emails. Friends emailing me, people I've met
online, people who are looking to hire me, random blog related inquiries,
etc. Part of it is also due to my push to move all communication away from
phone and towards email (and for a short urgent response, text). I would
estimate I get maybe 100 actionable emails a day that I actually reply to.
If something is unsolicited and irritating, I'll just not reply =P

I also disagree a bit on the whole follow-up issue. The faster I can get an email out, the sooner I can archive that email and completely forget about it unless they reply.

I find that shorter emails is a better strategy to reducing replies.

I guess lastly I'd say.. why do you have so much email? You're more of a 'connector' than I am, but I have a fairly centralized role at work and am active in a fair number of things and I get relatively few emails.. perhaps 20-30 a day at work and a similar number at home. I don't understand why anyone would be receiving thousands of emails a day unless their job revolved purely around answering email.

Edit:

One last thing – I also disagree on using lots of filters. I've done this in the past and found that maintaining filters became a task unto itself. I tag certain emails, but for the most part rely on search. I see creating hierarchies of categories as being made obsolete by fast indexing/search tech.

Thanks for your comment! I know it's a bit of a controversial thing – some
people really don't like that I intentionally hold back replies, but for
folks who email me back within 5 minutes, it's the only way to ensure they
don't monopolize my time.

I have read the Four Hour Work Week and was active on the forums for a
little while. I still read his blog, but I haven't picked up the updated
version – I've got a huge backlog of books to get through before I pick it
up =)

Thanks for your comment! I know it's a bit of a controversial thing – some
people really don't like that I intentionally hold back replies, but for
folks who email me back within 5 minutes, it's the only way to ensure they
don't monopolize my time.

I have read the Four Hour Work Week and was active on the forums for a
little while. I still read his blog, but I haven't picked up the updated
version – I've got a huge backlog of books to get through before I pick it
up =)

btw….you mentioned Tim Ferris, I assume you have read his book? I have pre-ordered the updated version.

I tend to keep everything – I never know when I might need something, so I
file everything away in folders (generally project based). The exceptions
to this rule are emails with extremely large attachments, jokes forwards,
etc. Any actual correspondence I file and keep – and so far haven't hit the
GMail limit =)

I agree with you though that 95% of the stuff I file I never need again -
but I have a tough time knowing which 5% I will need down the line, so I
just hold on to all of it!