There is probably nothing more problematic in our professional lives today than our ability to use and abuse email. It saves time; it wastes time.

In the past month I have been receiving hundreds of emails a day. Only about 50 of them are junk that eluded my filter. The rest are from students, friends, clients, advisors, colleagues and family. All are important to me, but there is no way that I can keep up with them.

I started sorting through these emails to determine how I can handle them more efficiently. Many of them were from people who sit down the hall from my office. Many were asking for an immediate response and some were "remails" asking why I didn't respond in a timely manner to the first one.

Managing Expectations

"Timely manner" is an interesting concept. People seem to be using emails to replace phone calls and they expect an immediate response. But that's not realistic. Look, I know that email is less intrusive than the phone, and people can respond when they have time. But we have come to expect folks to be watching their email, waiting to answer our questions. Most of the time, they don't disappoint; they are watching and do answer fairly quickly.

And as with Pavlov's dogs, we begin to salivate when that "You've Got Mail" sign appears. We have trained ourselves and others to expect instant responses and are fairly irritated when we don't get them. If we go out of town for a few days and our email is disrupted on our mobile devices, or if we can't get a signal, we feel disconnected and bereft. The world is in on the latest, but we are informationless and void.

Think—how much time do you spend on your email? Until a few weeks ago, that was impossible for me to tell because I was constantly checking my in-box. Email was the first thing I did in the morning and the last thing at night. My goal was always to get as many messages off as I could because I knew more will show up tomorrow. What's more, I have an iPhone which pulls email from my desktop, so now I have to clean up that in-box as well.

While waiting for a plane, a doctor or even for my restaurant table to be released for dinner, I read email. Okay, I often take it to the restroom with me too. I have now come to realize that I am an email junkie and I need to get control—because not only am I not using my time efficiently, I am also not getting critical work done because I am too busy answering messages that are not time-sensitive or even, in some cases, important.

Take Back Your Time

Interestingly, most of my clients don't email me. They usually call with questions and requests for information, particularly if they need an answer immediately. For those few clients who do email me, their messages get top priority. I suspect I am kidding myself into believing that I have to respond within 30 minutes, though. This realization about the utilization and frequency of messages from valued clients made me feel a bit freer to make some changes. Perhaps they will help you manage your work time better too.

I tried several strategies to rein in my daily email onslaught. First, I devised a system for filing my messages. Out of sight, out of mind: I read some messages, but frankly, some I just dropped into my files, thinking I could retrieve them if the subject ever came up again. Soon I had so many subfiles that I couldn't keep track of them. I discarded that option.

Next, I set up my auto-response feature to email a message back to anyone who sent me something. The message explained that I get too many messages and not to expect an answer immediately. Nobody paid attention, partially because I was still responding to messages as fast as I could.

It then occurred to me that I needed to retrain myself, just as much as I needed to retrain everyone else. The information junkie in all of us really needs to be managed. To begin to take control, I spent one afternoon going through my junk mail and opting out of receiving all email notices that gave me the opportunity to do so. Surprisingly, I canceled 87 opportunities for updates I don't want or need. It took some time and some of the requests did not go through, but it was well worth it. I really do not need to know when golf balls go on sale at Amazon.