My inbox is bigger than yours.

Whenever I get in a taxi in S?o Paulo, the driver starts the conversation with: "Today the city is a parking lot. We beat yesterday's record. It's 160 miles of traffic! "

What surprises me in these conversations is not the extent of traffic, but the pride of the drivers. The more traffic, the better. I started to believe that their self-esteem is directly related to the size of the problem they face in the streets.

What should be an embarrassment has become a bragging right.

Similar conversations are common in offices when executives talk about the amount of e-mails they receive daily. "Today I’ve got 600! I have 2500 unread in my inbox! "

Just as taxi drivers believe that traffic justifies their existence, so do many executives when it comes to e-mails. They believe that more e-mails increases how much the company relies on them. Inbox has become, for many, an index of corporate influence.

I'm sorry to inform you that no one cares about the size of your inbox. Answering emails do not count as work and managing your inbox is not your full time job.

If you accept this fact, there are healthy ways of dealing with the almost endless amount of messages we receive every day not only in our work email, but also in WhatsApp, FaceTime, text messaging, Skype, Instagram, Messenger, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

I strive to have no more than five unanswered messages at the end of the day. My rules are simple:

Messages I am only copied are not answered. All of them go directly to a folder called CC. At the end of the day, I read them quickly in 10 minutes just to make sure I did not miss any important one accidentally misaddressed.

My newsletters subscriptions also get diverted to another folder with this name. When I have time, I read some of them. If I stop reading one of the subscriptions for more than a week, I simply unsubscribe to it.

Invitations to meetings go to a third folder. At the end of the day I also spent a few minutes with the calendar accepting or rejecting the invitations all at once.

Messages from strangers and notifications from people accepting or rejecting meeting invitations go directly to the trash. Before I delete them, I double-check the senders just in case.

I color-code all the other messages that end up in my inbox to ensure that the critical ones appear at the top of the list.

Once read and answered, all messages are archived in a single folder. With the search tools available, it's easier to find old messages if they're all in one place. This also saves me time in filing.

Another strategy for avoiding e-mails is to write them down in order to avoid further exchanges. Instead of saying, "Let me know what time you want to meet," I say, "we can see each other on Tuesday between ten and noon. Pick 30 minutes and send an invitation."

In all social networks, where I spend more time than I should, I also read and answer all messages.

Here on LinkedIn, most are "thank you, but there's no interest". Better this way than leaving people unanswered. When there is something interesting, I ask them to write me an email with more details.

On Twitter, I always avoid the debate. If you did not like my opinion, read the next tweet. Maybe you agree with him or her.

On Facebook, I do not accept strangers and from time to time I clean up my friends’ list.

Finally, for information I need to share with my team, usually administrative matters that do not require answers, I leave voice messages in a WhatsApp group.

None of this matters if you still believe that the amount of messages you receive every day has any meaning. If you also see the benefit of cutting the hours you spend answering messages, the above tips can help you reduce your problem. It will be healthier for you and good for your business.

If you doubt it, drop me a note.

Note: Article originally published in Portuguese at Meio & Mensagem (https://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/opiniao/2018/08/20/meu-inbox-e-maior-que-o-seu.html)