I have a quote pinned to the bulletin board over my desk that reads:

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once”.

I don't know the author, Jennifer Yane, (also known as Jennifer Unlimited), but I  feel like she knows me! She knows that if  leave my desk for a thirty minute meeting,  fifty seven emails will suddenly appear, several bearing one of those funky little red exclamation marks that scream “Me first! Me first!”.  If I'm “Out Of  the Office” for 24 hours, this practically guarantees the “Your mailbox is over limit” message.  And, after being away for three weeks, I know that even if (notice the “if”) I've tried to keep up, there are going to be twenty plus days of messages attacking me. 

I don't think this is exclusively a “woman's issue”. But I do think women struggle more with all facets of “work/life balance” than their male colleagues and this is just one of the most challenging facets of our work lives.   I'm hearing more and more that the incessant demands of technology (dare I say the “intrusions”?) seem to hit women harder.  I know a lot more women than men who are feeling pretty desperate on this subject. Here's what I have tried:

•  Not sending emails! It's amazing how much can be accomplished with a quick old-fashioned telephone call.
• Reading and responding to emails only twice a day. I confess, this one is the hardest for me. Some days even impossible.  Most days I answer emails very early in the morning before anyone else (okay; anyone in the United States)  is awake enough to fire off an immediate response. Then I go at it again before I leave work.  But it's hard.
• Purging or filing accumulated emails. Like cleaning out messy drawers, I sometimes find this really, really satisfying, particularly on  Sunday evenings when I'm (already) feeling overwhelmed by the impending week.
• Immediately deleting all “Forward: Cute Quote” messages.  Where do people find these? And, more troubling, why are they sending them to me?

When I went to Google to see what kind of advice was available (Okay. Technology can be a blessing) I was pleased to see that of the half-dozen sites I checked out  (out of 491,000 possible—no joke!)   all offered  some version of my self-discovered cures. Many offered up other valuable insights and tips,  including how to calculate the % of your time and salary that gets eaten up dealing with email—a frightening exercise!  Best of all, several of them made me smile.  No small thing in the middle of an email meltdown.