Comment: Why "email-free Fridays" are a great idea

And declaring "email bankruptcy" is even better...

5 October 2007 12:17 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Are you overwhelmed by email? USA Today is reporting that some professionals are fighting back by declaring "email-free Fridays", or by deleting their entire in-box.

While this may sound like a heady dream to those still tethered to Outlook, I don't think it will be long before the UK follows in the footsteps of its trans-Atlantic cousins.

People (and I'm one - that screenshot image is from my inbox as of yesterday) get really stressed by the pressure of replying to emails. As it's such a quick and instant form of communication, the pressure is to deal with it in a quick and instant manner.

Email is brilliant, and we couldn't (and wouldn't want) to work without it now, but don't you think just one day off a week would be nice?

Today about 150 engineers at chipmaker Intel will kick off "Zero Email Fridays". Email isn't verboten, but people are "encouraged" to phone or (gasp!) meet face-to-face.

The goal, USA Today reports an Intel engineer stating, is "more direct, free-flowing communication and better exchange of ideas".

Apparently email-free Fridays already are the norm at Cellular and an order-processing company called PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services.

Even more liberating than email-free Fridays is the idea of declaring "email bankruptcy" when stressed workers, (usually in techie fields, notes the report) delete (or for the more cautious) archive their entire in-box and start over.

The thought makes me giddy. Imagine all those unopened and opened-but-awaiting-reply emails lurking menacingly in your in-box just vanished. Gone. Poof! Makes you feel free, doesn't it?

Every day, about 39.7 billion person-to-person emails are sent worldwide with the average worker getting 140 messages.

I think I must get someone's else share too - so if anyone's a bit short - just let me know. But not via email.