If you're sleeping with a portable device next to your pillow so you will not miss an email during the night, you are not alone. According to AOL's third annual "Email Addiction" survey, more Americans than ever before are using portable devices to keep tabs on their email throughout the day and night, and from virtually anywhere -bed, cars, bathrooms and even church. I'm guilty on all fronts and am admitting it today on national TV and in dozens of local TV interviews (like here and here) + on radio ....

Checking your email for the 5th time today?
AOL, in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation, conducted online surveys with 4,025 respondents 13 and older in 20 cities around the country to measure email usage. It showed email use on portable devices has nearly doubled since 2004, and as a result, people are checking email around the clock. According to the survey, the average email user checks mail about five times a day, and 59% of those with portable devices are using them to check email every time a new message arrives. Forty-three percent of email users with portable devices say they keep the device nearby when they are sleeping to listen for incoming mail. If I checked email every time a new message arrived, would literally never look up. On an average day, get about 400 & try to reply to all of the ones looking for a reply within 24 hrs. even if it's just to buy time & say, "get back to you soon." You can test this by writing me at ReginaLewis@aol.com. If you are an AOL member, you can even see when I open it by checking the "status." Sometimes I get busted for opening a mail & not replying. Usually just means am trying to think of reply or am opening it on a blackberry & it'll be easier to write back when am back on a computer (on any given day I use 3-4 different ones).


With or without portable devices, 15% of Americans describe themselves as "addicted to email," and many are even planning their vacations with email access in mind. About four in ten email users say it is "very" or "somewhat" important to them to think about email accessibility when they are planning a vacation, and eighty-three percent of email users admit to checking their mail once a day while actually on vacation. Here's my take on this. It is frustrating to go somewhere where there is no online access, unless you want it that way by design. Also, if you're going to sit on the beach all day & worry about not being on top of your email, you're not scoring any points by going cold turkey. Employ the "10 minute rule." Check your email from 10 mins in the morning & 10 mins at night. Odds are there's nothing really pressing & most things have a way of sorting themselves out in your absence (a lot of times things actually go more smoothly in my absence;). I have a blackberry-addict friend who went on a cruise recently. He was almost completely out of pocket. He seemed OK with it. I thought it was horrible.

Other significant findings include:


** Washington, DC is the most "email addicted" city in the country. Eighty-two percent of DC-residents have multiple email accounts -- the highest percentage of any city in the survey. I could be skewing the results. Just kidding. Wasn't in the survey and suspect some of this may have to do with people who work in government positions having mandatory work email addresses. Rounding out the top 10 cities addicted to email are: 2.) Atlanta ; 3.) New York ; 4.) San Francisco ; 5.) Houston ; 6.) Los Angeles ; 7.) Seattle ; 8.) Orlando ; 9.) Denver ; and 10.) Miami .

**Americans are emailing anywhere and everywhere. Fifty-nine percent of people emailing from portable devices are checking email in bed in while in their pajamas; 53% in the bathroom; 37% are checking email while they drive; and 12% admit to checking email in church. That's got to be sacrilege & I confess to doing this. At least it's quiet vs having your cellphone ring. Bad excuse/attempt to rationalize, I know.


**Women (16%) are more likely to describe themselves as addicted to email than men (13%), and are actually spending 15 minutes more per day on email than men. We are -- after all -- the communicators. Guys also don't seem to care about spelling or grammar in their email exchanges. This wasn't in the study. Just a casual observation;)

**Forty-three percent of email users check their email first thing in the morning, and 40% have checked their email in the middle of the night. Twenty-six percent admit to checking email on a laptop in bed while in their pajamas. Checking email first thing in morning can be a real trap. I know a lot of business people who don't check it until 10 am. Otherwise, you get sucked in & you're behind by the time your day even starts. If I start checking my email at home, invariably, I'm late to wherever am slated to be. Have also noticed if you actually want a hard-to-reach person to read your email, 10 am seems to be a prime time. Again, just my personal experience having sent several billion emails in the last decade (give or take;). Am big fan of laptop in bed. Doing at the moment.

**Sixty percent of people who email admit to checking their personal email at work an average of three times a day. While only 15% of those who do so have been "busted" by their bosses, 28% say they feel guilty about it. My take: Get over it. As long as you're getting your work done, think this is personally acceptable, though it is smart to know the rules & regs of your workplace. And, if you're using the company computer, keep in mind it's their property & they probably reserve the right to review anything on it. Anything.

Dealing with Email Addiction (we use the term loosely):


E-mail addiction has less to do with curbing an obsession than it does with proper time and email management.

**Organize: Try using folders provided in most free email services including AOL to file messages appropriately. Simple drag and drop technology allows you to file your messages by category, and can help avoid repetitive communication. Must admit I'm not great about this, but if you use multiple computers it can be a life-saver to have them stored on the web vs your hard-drive which is specific to your computer. On AOL, when you open a mail, click on SAVE at the bottom & then SAVED ON AOL. Then, you can get it anytime, anywhere or any computer by logging on to AOL.com & going to your SAVED ON AOL file. From there, I just use the "find" (control F) or "search" feature & look up any old mails may need by who sent them/or whom I sent them to or by topic if can recall the subject. But, the most organized people I know, absolutely use folders. They also probably have clean cars;)

**Use the Away Message: If you feel compelled to answer every email as it comes in, use your away message to let people know you've stepped away from email for the day (or night or week), and will respond when you return. This helps curb against expectation of immediacy. It also is actually a really considerate thing to do, cause then you're not leaving people hanging and can even give them an alternative (try so & so instead).

**Follow the Rule of Three: If you have emailed back and forth with the same person on the same topic more than three times, it's probably time to pick up the phone or walk down the hall or across the street and have a conversation. It's funny, Steve Case (AOL founder) actually used to encourage this rule. At AOL you almost never hear the phone ring. Everyone is emailing & IMing. For the most part, it works. But, sometimes it's counter-productive.

**Don't Over-Reply: The more email you send, the more you're likely to get. There's a real tendency to OVER-reply. Seems like a lot of the last emails in an email thread never need to be sent. Like "Ok!" or "Thanks!" If you do this, for goodness sake, don't cc: everyone if not needed. On the flip side, if you are looking for a reply, make sure you ask a specific question. This is particularly important with men. Or you'll never hear back;)


If you just got to the bottom of this & read this whole thing, it's probably now time to go check your email!

Read more about these gadgets that feed our email addictions:
Switched: Gadgets, Tech, Digital Stuff or the Rest of Us

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