I have often found myself in conversation with colleagues (past and present), friends and family when the topic being discussed turns to an unruly email inbox which never seems to get below 500 (or even 5000) unread emails.

I must admit I am constantly flabbergasted at this type of revelation. As I confidently type away on my computer, secure in the knowledge that when I lay my head down to sleep tonight, my dreams will not be haunted by the echoes of email unread. Now I must point out that I am not an overly efficient individual, nor am I someone who has immense amounts of time on his hands. I am not a technophobe nor luddite and yet I manage to maintain my email inbox at a controllable level.

It got me thinking about the reasons some people may struggle with this modern affliction and how they can be assisted to address it. I came to the conclusion there are 3 major reasons why this phenome can occur to the unsuspecting professional.

(At this time I would like to point out that some people wear this technological affliction like a badge of honour. They see it as a promotable talking point which evidences their importance in their organisation and emphasises their status. To those people I would point out the enormous damage you are perpetrating to your personal brand as people you work with, clients and suppliers construe your lack of response to their written request as belittling their import or showcasing ineptitude on your part).

But back to the possible reasons and some suggested solutions to the problem at hand.

• 1) You have confused your personal life with your work life. This is quite simple, and offers quite a simple solution as well. Many people, whilst maintaining they support a healthy work/life balance, continue to utilise their electronic communication like an advertising free-for-all. Ads fly in from amazon after that thai cook book you ordered 3 years ago and used your work email as the contact. Aunt Juniper sends the bi-weekly update to your inbox, usually around the same time as the company’s financial updates are due and all of those facebook updates are really interfering with your ability to pull together the latest bid response.

The solution here? Have more than 1 email address and Segregate them religiously. Next time you order something online, book a table at a restaurant or tickets for a movie, throw them your Hotmail, gmail or yahoo address (unless you actually work at one of these places….). Monitor your personal email on personal time, leaving your work email free to be cluttered with work only content.

• 2) You are using the wrong access channel. We all understand the importance of making use of the best communication channel for our customers, clients and staff. It’s about getting the right message to them in the right way at the right time. Now whilst society has deemed this to be the technological age of il communicado, it’s important to realise that to ensure you get important messages at the right time you may need to utilise different channels. Some messaging can best be delivered via a phone call, a text message or (heavens above) an actual face to face conversation. Think about the type of communication you receive regularly in your inbox- which of those would be better communicated through a different channel? Which have resulted in a missed opportunity or required a decision that was never made due to the e-mail languishing under the sea of unread correspondence?

• 3) Your span of control is too large. There I said it (and this one will probably stick in the craw of those individuals who do wear this affliction as a badge of honour), put simply you have taken on too much. Does your email contain requirements for urgent decisions to be made on more than three functions within your organisation? Does your email retinue include members in the thousands? Are there emails relating to material you have no idea exists or to what end they are required?

The solution, whilst easy to identify, is more difficult to execute. It involves either jJob redesign or delegation (and I mean true delegation of responsibility, not just handing off the reporting of a function).

Give your direct reports the much needed and wanted responsibility to manage some of your decision making responsibilities. Let them ease the burden of your inbox. This way you will not be chortled about at the water cooler as “Bill never got back to me on that Proposal so our competitor picked it up” or “Nancy was silent on the required M&A team for that acquisition and so the company got spooked and withdrew”.

Failing the ability to truly delegate (and I’m well travelled enough to know that there are individuals who do have the talent and IP to manage large parts of the business very effectively) I would highly recommend a job redesign. Understanding what your individual core business is and making your experiences at work all about the achievement of that is truly a liberating experience. Know what you need to do, operate in an environment that will allow you to do it. And do it well.

Now as I sign out, let me say, there are people in the corporate world who legitimately have issues with keeping their email inbox under control. It can cost the company in terms of missed opportunity and profit through delayed or lack of decision making. Closer to home for us as individuals though, is the impact it has on your personal brand.

So take a moment to think about your personal situation. Are there things you can do to stop your inbox getting out of control and are you willing to do them?