I'm going to contradict myself here, so let's just get that on the table from the start.

I am sick of e-mail.  It's supposed to be one of life's great conveniences... how did we ever live without it?  I do wonder how businesses ever operated without e-mail and fax, but I'd be willing to give it a try.  The problem is, we are all so dependent on it.

Between employees, clients, viewers, junk mail, and whatever else, I get about 200 e-mails a day.  I simply can't keep up.  I've developed some habits in an effort to try to keep up, or at least manage it as best I can, but I'm not managing it very well.  I respond to as many as I can right away, delete as many as I can right away, and file as many as I can away in appropriate folders.

I now plan into my schedule one weekend every six to eight weeks to come into the office and do nothing but clean out e-mail.  Luckily I have a TV in my office, so Sundays work out pretty well... me, my e-mail folders, and the major sporting event of the week in the background.  This past Sunday I had to flip back and forth between the race and the NCAA tournament, but that kept me occupied long enough to clean out about 2,000 e-mails.

I have figured out one great trick when it comes to cleaning out e-mail, and if you struggle with e-mail cleansing I recommend that you try it...  It is much easier to clean out your inbox if you sort it by the sender, rather than by the date!  When sorted by sender, it's easier to stay focused and on task... because you are usually dealing with the same subject matter in chunks, and you hit big piles of e-mail from the same person about a project that's already over, you know it's safe to delete a big pile all at once!

But, the truth is, I'm not really complaining.  E-mail allows us to engage many more people than we could without it.  I love every viewer e-mail I get, even if it's a complaint.  My view is a bit different than most in the media.  If someone takes the time to complain, they are likely a regular and/or loyal viewer of the station... they cared enough to write.  The people who care enough to write are why we are here.  I respond to every viewer e-mail, good or bad, and I always will.

So, shoot me an e-mail!  What's one more?