Here are some facts about email posted by TheEmailAdmin that you’ll find mind boggling: I selected a few of the bogglers here, or you can read the entire post here.
- There was an estimated 294 billion emails sent every day in 2010 totaling over 90 trillion emails sent every year, or 2.8 million emails sent every second.
- The average number of emails sent by a typical business user each day is 43. That same user receives an average of 130 emails each day.
- Of those 294 billion email messages sent every day it is estimated that 90% of them are spam or malicious.
- The average corporate employee spends 25 percent of their work day on email related tasks. This is compared to 14 percent spent on face to face meetings and 9 percent spent on the phone.
- The amount of spam is increasing at a rate of 20 to 25 percent every year.
- 74% of all adults online state that email is the preferred method of communication.
The average user spends about 1 hour and 47 minutes using email.
- One third of all people aged 18 to 34 check their email when they first wake up.
- 62 percent of people admit that they regularly check work email over the weekend and 50 percent admit to checking work email while on vacation. 78 percent of this is done using mobile devices.
- Do you check your email over the weekend? How’s that workin’ for ya?
Thanks to this guest post by Thomas Stone, you now have “how it all began!” Thanks Thomas.
1965-Email is introduced at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as CTSS MAIL. This incarnation of email only allowed users who logged into the same host or “mainframe” to communicate.
1966- SAGE—an automated control system for tracking and intercepting enemy bomber-craft set up by NORAD—may have had a functional form of email by this time.
1971-Ray Tomlinson sends the first network email on ARPANET.
1980-Messages are sent over the newly established worldwide distributed Internet discussion system USENET.
1982- First known use of the term ‘email.’
1982-SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is introduced.
1989-CompuServe offers Internet connectivity and email service to its subscribers. IBM releases Lotus Notes.
Early 1990’s-Email spam begins.
1993-AOL and Delphi connect their proprietary email systems to the Internet.
Late 1990’s-HTML email is introduced, allowing for rich formatting with messages.
1996-Hotmail—one of the first free web-based email services—launches.
1997-Yahoo! Introduces Yahoo Mail.
1997-When Microsoft Outlook is launched it includes email, scheduling, contact management, task management and a journal module.
2003-Microsoft Outlook 2003 includes anti-phishing filters and the ability to receive mail from multiple accounts.
2004-Federal Trade Commission codifies email spam laws.
2006-Facebook launches. *
2007-Google launches Gmail.*
**From 2007 to date so many changes occur to Gmail and Facebook that they would double the length of this post.
Things change and things stay the same. While Gmail and Facebook have completely changed our relationship with our inboxes, email remains as central as ever – as time-consuming as ever. It’s just that we’re spending more time overall on the internet! The volume of spam has decreased and
email marketing has become more respectful, targeted, and conversational rather than just random and junky. But in this increasingly interconnected world, sometimes that doesn’t make the number of messages in our inboxes any less overwhelming.
One thing’s for sure: email isn’t going away. Stay tuned to Inbox Detox for more strategies to set your pace and stay in-step with your inbox.
Did I forget anything in my timeline? Please let us know in the comments section if you can remember any mile-markers in the Brief History of Email that we forgot to include.
Here is a great blog post with suggestions to reduce information overload in the new year. Here’s an excerpt:
The past year has been marked by increases in the cost of Information Overload, which for the U.S. economy now stands at $997 billion, as well as hopeful signs that awareness of the problem is rising as well.
With the New Year already underway, we can start with a few simple New Year’s Resolutions that are time tested in lowering the amount of Information Overload we all face.
1.) Learn better search techniques. Control search results with Boolean logic by using AND or OR and use advanced options to narrow the field.
2.) Use restraint in communications. Don’t cc the world, don’t include more people than necessary in any communication, avoid gratuitous “thanks” and “great” replies, and avoid reply-to-all at all costs.
Read more…
To find out what you consider to be the greatest sources of Information Overload, both for you individually and for your organization, as well as to understand how these challenges are being addressed, the research firm, Basex, developed a survey that asks you to share your thoughts on this topic.
Please click here to take the survey.
Participants will receive an Executive Summary of the survey’s findings and can also enter a drawing to win a set of Dilbert CubeGuard information overload blockers (three sets will be awarded). Please share the survey link with colleagues who should be interested in the results.
Wednesday, October 20 is Information Overload Day. No, we won’t be overloading you with more info that day; we’re just trying to get the world to recognize all of the issues that we’re experiencing because of sooooo much information.
We are challenging everyone to send just 10% fewer email messages that day. The impact to the world is over $180 billion in productivity.
Here are two things you can do:
1. Get everyone on board with turning off their Blackberries and SmartPhones at 6PM (or earlier) and leaving them off for the entire night. Pass the word!
2. Join the webinar highlighting information overload and the issues that comes with it being put on by BASEX, the research firm. Because I have a working relationship with them, they have offered me a code for you to use that waives the $75 registration, but on ONE condition. You must promise toNOT multi-task while participating in the webinar. The code to use to waive the fee is:
EganGuest
Here is the link to register: http://InformationOverloadDay.com Remember to use code EganGuest to waive the registration fee.
Hi everyone. Here is the code for you to use to waive the fee for the great webinar on information overload.
EganGuest – yep – that’s the code:
EganGuest
There is ONE caveat – you must PROMISE to NOT multitask while on the webinar.
Here is the link for the webinar and information about it.
http://www.informationoverloadday.com/
[picappgallerysingle id="5066443"]
Information Overload Awareness Day is an annual workplace observance that calls attention to the problem of Information Overload and how it impacts both individuals and organizations.
Information Overload describes an excess of information that results in the loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks. Organizations of all shapes and sizes have already been significantly impacted by information overload, a problem that costs the U.S. economy $900 billion per year in lower productivity and throttled innovation according to research from Basex.
An online event has been set for October 20th to commemorate the day. It features a variety of speakers that will address the key issues and challenges associated with lessening the occurrence of Information Overload.
- Speakers and presentations focused on critical cultural, organizational, business and IT topics that Information Overload impacts.
- Emphasis on key business issues and drivers.
- Presentation and discussions by senior executives of global companies of their ideas, successes, failures, and strategies.
- Analysis of pertinent issues.
- Tactical and strategic recommendations.
Is your company overloaded?
Join us on October 20!
Here’s an excerpt of an article by Alexia Tsotsis posted on TechCrunch:
A new study by email software purveyor Xobni confirms what we bloggers know to be true, there’s actually no such thing as a day off in the Internet age (Want more visceral proof than an email study? Check out the timestamp of this post).
Information anxiety has pretty much put the kibosh on “time off” as two out of three Americans and Brits check their email outside of regular business hours (ha) and half of Americans email while on vacation (double ha).
For the entire article, click here.
A few stats that might (or might not) alarm you…
* 27% check email outside of regular working hours because they feel it is expected.
* 26% of Americans feel they can’t handle/overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive during vacation.
Is this you?
For the entire article, click here.
Great post by Jonathan Spira entitled, “The Siren’s Call of Information Overload”
Here’s an excerpt:
Instead of multitasking what we actually do is task switching which is really a series of continuous interruptions. While this is done in the belief that one is being more efficient and getting more done, nothing could be farther from the truth. Each interruption comes with a penalty. Read more…
Here is the link.
Here’s an article you’ll find interesting.
Here’s an excerpt:
The interruption epidemic is reaching a crisis point at some companies and shows no sign of slowing. Email volume is growing at a rate of 66% a year, according to the E-Policy Institute. More people are texting. More are using Facebook or Twitter for work.
“It’s worse than it’s ever been,” says Michelle Rupp, owner of NRG Seattle, an insurance brokerage with a staff of 12 who feel pounded by the avalanche of messaging. “It’s so hard to stay focused. Everything bings and bongs and tweets at you, and you don’t think.”
Yes, it is possible to blunt the interruption assault. But business leaders must go on the offensive in a realm most are oblivious to: interruption management.
The average worker today focuses on a task for about three minutes – that’s it. Then, they’re interrupted or they interrupt themselves. Multitasking is a bunch of hooey. You can’t do two things at once, just like you can’t be in two places at the same time. Yes, you can SHIFT from one task to another, but you can’t do two things at once. Alot of folks think they can… And then they give each task less than 100% attention. What does that say for productivity?
Here is a good post with some background research on the whole subject of multitasking:
http://blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu/teachingblog/2010/03/04/multitasking-revisited/
