Monday, April 30, 2012

Overwhelmed

I feel buried by all the messaging we do these days--e-mails, texting, voicemail, facebook, etc.  I am SOOOOOO behind in terms of responding.  And I'm also losing e-mails--a few weeks ago a good friend e-mailed to inform me that her first grandchild just made her grand entrance--and I missed it altogether.  I hate the way g-mail bundles stuff.  There's probably a way to address that particular issue, but I'll be damned if I know what it is.  I spent two hours yesterday going through my queue, and I still have loads more.

I think people of my kids' generations feel freer to ignore and delete.  My communication model is that you should respond somehow, although I often don't do it in a timely fashion these days.

Because I'm buried, you know.  How are you feeling on the communication front?  How do you manage?

Thanks for letting me whine.  

3 comments:

Sara Z. said...

I've gotten out of the habit of feeling like I need to respond to things right away. I try to designate like 2x per week when I give really extended focus to all the internet communication. The rest of the time, I really don't worry about it and only skim for urgent messages. The more you get away from immediate replying, the more people get used to it, and the more you realize it does not cause any disasters.

(Also, yeah, you can go into gmail settings (click the thing that looks like a gear on upper right), then under "general" click "turn conversation view off"

Louise Plummer said...

It's like the rest of my life: I'm all organized and am Miss goody two shoes for awhile and then I fall apart and ignore things for weeks.

I never never listen to phone messages. If I didn't live with Tom, I wouldn't know who had called, and I wouldn't care.

No texting, no tweeting, no facebook. Life is better without it.

Amelia said...

I think making this disclaimer is a successful way of dealing with the situation. From now on when I get a facebook comment or a mention on my blog from you, I will think, wow, that cool Ann Cannon took time to reply to me! And I will feel honored! ;)