I let the e-mail provider do the flushing, however, I still check to ensure that all e-mail to be quarantined should actually be there!
What about you - how do you cope with the deluge/torrent of e-mails flying in for your response and attention?
Do you hang a 'Busy, get lost' front in your e-mail box system to deter more senders coming through?
One of the funniest from the link above:
[..... "No, I put that up a couple of days before, so no one expects me to answer their e-mails."
People are using the out of office like answering machines to screen their calls. At a single stroke, it defuses the expectation that anyone is there to reply. It's a kind of tactical, nuclear weapon.
Survival
But getting strategic with the out of office is nothing to be ashamed about, says Will Schwalbe, who with David Shipley, is co-author of Send: The How, Why, When - and When Not - of Email.
The New York-based Mr Schwalbe admits to being a little creative with the dates of his own out of office, gaining breathing space when he returns from a break.
"I don't consider it dishonest. It's survival. I get about 200 e-mails a day, that's more than 60,000 every year. And people have got so demanding, if you don't answer in half an hour, they're e-mailing again to say 'why haven't you replied?' and 'didn't you get my e-mail?'.
"An out of office message stops them from freaking out - and it keeps their paranoia down to a dull roar," says Mr Schwalbe."The only time that people used to use out of office was when they were on vacation - 'I'm at the summer house in Maine, ring my assistant if it's urgent' - but now quite cleverly people are using it to say 'I'm really busy at the moment, please don't take offence, but it's going to take a couple of days before I get back'.".....]
