Thank you for this! 

The point of the paragraph above? I naturally walk slowly. Perhaps that's why I'm almost the only one to notice the gorgeous campus where I live.

Your comment was great (and it definitely doesn't matter when I posted something!) and I laughed when you talked about the inbox competition.  Its so (eerily) true.  I remember walking into the office and being happy to have a ton of emails, and if I had to guess, I'd say that its because it makes us feel important.  To-do lists make us feel important, as if we've got important things to do (even if they aren't, in relative terms).  Is this a a cruel game of narcissism? 

52,000 emails. Ugh. I can only imagine how that person would be able to easily say, “I'm sorry, I just can't deal with this.  I've got 52,000 emails waiting for me.”  It's an indirect way of saying, “I am important.  More important than you.”

Man, that was cynical of me, eh?

Thanks so much for the comment.  Great points!

For those of us who “live in our inbox” it has been become almost a competition of who has the most e-mail sitting in their inbox. (For the record, I've heard as high as 52,000.)

This, of course, begs the four questions you pose to the reader.

The answer lies, I believe, in coaching those you are in direct contact with to slow down and, like you said, stop reacting and start adding value.  The world will not end if we don't work until 9 p.m. every night.

It's a matter of working on the stuff that's important, and weeding out what's unnecessary. 

Of course, with everything readily available, it's easy to pick up your smartphone and answer an e-mail while you're in your pajamas watching American Idol. But as soon as you do that, you've set a precedent that cannot be reversed.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Great post.

Your comment was great (and it definitely doesn't matter when I posted something!) and I laughed when you talked about the inbox competition.  Its so (eerily) true.  I remember walking into the office and being happy to have a ton of emails, and if I had to guess, I'd say that its because it makes us feel important.  To-do lists make us feel important, as if we've got important things to do (even if they aren't, in relative terms).  Is this a a cruel game of narcissism? 

52,000 emails. Ugh. I can only imagine how that person would be able to easily say, “I'm sorry, I just can't deal with this.  I've got 52,000 emails waiting for me.”  It's an indirect way of saying, “I am important.  More important than you.”

Man, that was cynical of me, eh?

Thanks so much for the comment.  Great points!

For those of us who “live in our inbox” it has been become almost a competition of who has the most e-mail sitting in their inbox. (For the record, I've heard as high as 52,000.)

This, of course, begs the four questions you pose to the reader.

The answer lies, I believe, in coaching those you are in direct contact with to slow down and, like you said, stop reacting and start adding value.  The world will not end if we don't work until 9 p.m. every night.

It's a matter of working on the stuff that's important, and weeding out what's unnecessary. 

Of course, with everything readily available, it's easy to pick up your smartphone and answer an e-mail while you're in your pajamas watching American Idol. But as soon as you do that, you've set a precedent that cannot be reversed.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Great post.

Ha, that was corny of me, wasn't it?

It's not that I'm a control freak, I'm just so dumb i can't always read my own handwriting!

P.S.  If your to-do list is also your dream-list–and not just a have-to-do-list, then DON'T SLOW DOWN!