EDIT: I replied to a few emails today just to handle a couple urgent things, and then a bunch of people replied to me, and now the number is closer to 700 :cries-in-corporate:
I work a customer-facing job, and I have a large book of customers that I am responsible for. I haven’t opened any new emails in almost a month. I have coworkers and managers down my throat about certain situations that should have been handled by now. For some reason, I just can’t do it.
At this point, I am so stressed out thinking about these emails that even opening my work computer causes a mild panic attack. I don’t know how to get out of this.
Not sure if this is a symptom of depression or what. But I am stuck and idk what to do (I mean, besides going through the damn emails).
Comments
Make a folder, move all unread into the folder, and mark as read. Now start fresh and forget about it
Sounds like burnout. Don’t think about 600, just start with 5 today. Skim, flag urgent, archive junk. Tell your manager you’re behind so you’re not alone in it. Panic at opening your laptop is a real sign of stress, not laziness.
My former boss had 5000 unread emails. She said if they were that important, the sender will send again. Then one day our organization had some server issue and everyone’s emails were deleted. We all went to “inbox zero”.
Hi. Autistic and Chronically depressed and anxious person/ with autistic burnouts and shutdowns here who works and has a busy inbox with lots of projects/clients…
If that is not an option or can’t bear thinking about right now due to survival needs:
Make a folder in your inbox PER client/task. Number them in priority order.
Do not read the emails in full, read just enough that you can place them in the correct folder by applicability. (A lot can be binned because there is a newer reply that contain the whole thread)
Once they are all filed (and will go quicker than you know) open folder 1 and work through replying/sorting just that client…. In full …to get them off your back, work down the priority list.
As new emails come in, file them straight away without reading to loop back to once you’ve got through the initial back log.
Youve got this 🫂🫂🫂
Depression and burnout.
One trick.
Delete everything. COntact IT to tell them you lost everything. They will tell you nothing can be done. Start from zero.
You must work in H.R.
Hi, I work a job where I get anywhere from 10-100 emails per day. My inbox is sitting at 121 unread (give or take). When I start to feel overwhelmed, I like to search “from:<person>” so I only see emails from that specific person.
Pick one of your customers. Start with the nicest one, or the most patient one. Search for their emails in your inbox and start with them. Then move on to the next nicest or patient customer.
Honestly, the starting is the hardest part. Starting with an easy one gives you that feeling of accomplishment and success that you can use to fuel your workday. You can do this.
if you’re from pindi/Isb bring your laptop and I’ll read and make notes everyone of it. You can sit and enjoy your coffee
Sounds like stress to me, I looked at my inbox and there were so many emails. I’m going through them and picking out the urgent ones and replying to them first. I take the easy ones for later. Good luck and take it easy.
I definitely recommend setting your inbox up to read emails as “conversations.” That way you can easily see if there are any other emails within that chain that tell you if the issue has been resolved already or if there’s follow ups that can be ignored.
I typically sort by person or conversation. Then I delete everything that is not important.
I used to make ‘month’ folders and just put everything received in July and August etc into the folder if I hadn’t done it. Was easier to sort when anyone did come back from somewhere. Keep the last 2 weeks and move on.
I’d fire you
Honestly can’t remember the last time I only had 600 unread. It got to a point where I simply gave up. I’m sitting at around 3,500 at the moment. Might do a cleanup tomorrow to get it down to 3,000. E-mail for me is utterly useless, I get somewhere in the vicinity of 300-400/day. Far too much noise, and rules don’t always catch everything they should.
If it’s important, someone will hit me up on teams, call me, or walk over to wherever I’m sitting.
I know someone who deletes all of their emails when they get overwhelming. He said if it’s important they will email him again.
Delete them all. It gives you a reset. When they start coming in again, you can reply to them then.
Just delete them and start over with a clean slate
Here is what you are going to do. Move all emails younger than 3 weeks to a folder. Then, in your inbox filter all emails by ones that directly mention you. Meaning emails sent only to you or have you tagged in the email. Put them in a 2nd folder. Go back to inbox and filter by attachments. Move all attachments to a 3rd folder. Go back to inbox and any email older than 3 weeks delete. Someone would have said something if they really needed your attention in those emails, and at this point, it won’t be worth replying.
Now comes the hard part. Go through the 2nd folder and make a task list of what you need to do and what is too late to address.
Then go through the 1st folder and make another task list. Combine the task lists in priority order and complete. Then go through the 3rd folder and find any useful attachment you may want to keep. Forms, receipts, documents, etc. Set aside some time during the week to read your emails. Modays and Wednesdays are often the best times to do this.
Surely you need to address it or you will get fired. Is it a cry for help, are you trying to bring that about?
You have created this and you can fix. You will have to face up to reading them and acting appropriately.
You may have to spend some unpaid extra hours sorting them out. Tell your boss you are behind and a bit overwhelmed but will to do say an hour extra for a week or so.
But it is not likely as bad as you imagine.
Firstly, a lot of those emails will be follow ups to earlier ones. Deal with the newest ones first then when you get to the earlier ones on the same subject, you’ll have already sorted a lot of them. Read the new ones that come in from now first, they may refer to an earlier one.
Second, some will have self-resolved and gone away, they are just telling you an outcome.
Third, some will be pure information giving. You may need that information, it may help you. Some will be irrelevant junk. Read them and bin them as necessary.
Some are going to have been important and you may have dropped the ball. Deal with them properly, apologise and ‘fess up as appropriate.
It will pass, just knuckle down, you will be glad you did.
I get it, I just looked cuz I haven’t checked in awhile and have 87,015 unread emails. That’s just for yahoo smdh. I have so much to do but then I end up doing nothing. Maybe erasing all of them like the other replies are saying would help you out but I wish you well and hopefully things get better for you 🙂
I have 2500+, it’s fine.
CTRL + A -> Delete
think that’s a sign to find a different job bud
Not a doctor…but this sounds like classic executive dysfunction of ADD
Many people with ADD have a hard time executing things that they really don’t want to do, even understanding the cause, and the gravity that their dysfunction may have still creates a paralysis of function, each day can wake up knowing it’s what they need to do and have a plan to do it just any type of sidetrack or distraction will always take precedence.
If this sounds like you, I would recommend trying to take the task and change it into something else, for example, twist it in your mind that it can be a game, like quantifying how many of your emails are duplicates or irrelevant information, or you could game like how quickly you can resolve 10 things or something of that nature. This can help bring dopamine back to the situation which from there on could get you motivated to continue.
Sometimes when tasks are too much, I personally find it easier to tackle it with a coworker, based on the context, I’m sure you probably don’t want to get another coworker involved, but just the additional support from another person is enough to keep me on track even if the coworker is not actually doing anything of the task
I have currently 1,239 work emails I won’t read. If they are not calling you about them mark them all read
Your job isn’t to read email. Focus on your KPI first.
You could just delete them all… I mean I would
Same. For me it’s emails from university. I’m unable to open them.. Hundreds of them..
I dont work in a customer facing job but one that’s deals with a lot of email communication. When I have a lot of emails, I first sort by subject and start cleaning from there
It may be depression or sheer overwhelm, or nervous system overload.
I have close to 6k unread emails over a 5 year period.
It is still lying there. I am not deleting them also.
This sounds like a freeze/fawn response due to anxiety and burnout. I hope it gets better. I’d recommend some resources to reset or, if possible, seeking a less demanding position. It’s also okay to ask for help and accommodations from supervisors to help you work through the backlog. My best wishes to you!
I have really bad anxiety and although I keep a clean inbox, I feel/act like this about lots of things all the time. Regardless of what you do with the actual inbox, please do seek help to feel better. The work might be able to wait for action, but your own mental health needs to be prioritised.
Sometimes you just need to pull the ripcord. Mark all as read. The important ones will always come back
right click mark read
Divide them into weeks and file them. Then attack one file at a time. Small chunks are much less overwhelming x
Amateur.
This hits so close to home. I’ve been in almost this exact situation before – that paralyzing fear where opening your inbox feels impossible, and the longer you wait the worse it gets. The anxiety builds up so much that even thinking about those emails triggers panic. You’re not broken or lazy, your brain is just protecting you from what it perceives as overwhelming threat.
Here’s what helped me break out of a similar spiral: start with just 5 minutes. Set a timer and commit to looking at emails for exactly 5 minutes, not solving anything, just scanning subject lines. Sometimes I’d have someone sit with me virtually while I did it because having another person there made it feel less terrifying. After that 5 minutes, you can stop guilt-free. The goal isn’t to clear your inbox today, its to prove to your brain that opening those emails won’t actually kill you. Once you break that initial freeze, momentum starts to build naturally. I know it sounds too simple but when you’re stuck in that avoidance cycle, sometimes the smallest step forward is what breaks the pattern.
Disclosure: I’m the founder of ScatterMind, where I help ADHDers become full-time entrepreneurs.
Highlight all…’mark as read’.
If it’s important, they’ll reach out.
Select all, mark read, done; fuck work.
This thread just made me feel less alone. Project manager with a heavy case load and I frequently struggle to get everything done. I’ve only been in my role for 9 months and it is just never ending. It’s got me feeling like a failure. I also have things that have not been followed up on in some time. I just tell myself that it is what it is.
CtrL A
delete
Right click “mark all as read”
Rookie numbers. I have a coworker with 32,000. I joke about it a lot. It just keeps going up, too.
Perhaps set up a perpetual out of office message to let people know your email address is almost never attended.
If you’re using Outlook, I think there’s a way you can group your emails by subject so they’ll stack together. That will minimize what you’re looking at, if there were multiple emails sent regarding the same thing. Then, skim through what you have, looking for any that are flagged or marked urgent, and address them first.
Delete anything that is over 14 days old and go through the 10 oldest emails at that point. I do this for myself when I get overwhelmed and do the same for my kids. Room looks like a dumpster? Pick up and throw away only 10 things. Don’t feel like loading the dishwasher? Put only 10 items in. Work feels overwhelming? Pick 10 easiest things to get out of the way.
What happens most of the time is you get a quick dopamine boost, and it gets you going. Afterwards, it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it did at first. If it does? Walk away and repeat the process in a few hours or a day.
Dump them all, If it was really Important someone will ask or follow up with you. I worked with a guy who did this, he had zero stress. Now.. he did filter out with keyword his health care and finicial because that really pertain to him.
Been there. Practically, pick a date and mark everything before that as read. If it’s important they will follow up with you. Work on the smaller chunk that’s left. Set up rules for specific people or groups (eg internal updates, client groups, vendors), color code their priority and ease. Start each day with the hard/top priority emails. When you’re feeling low on energy, pick one from the easy bucket to knock off. Give yourself credit for doing the things – keep a tally, give yourself ticks!
But more importantly speak to someone about how you’re feeling, get the help you need to get your spark back. For me, this was the first sign of burnout, and I really didn’t take stock of. Good luck.