Why Everyone Needs Three Emails
Thursday January 13th 2005
In this brand spankin' new digital world of ours, we've turned a lot of traditional rules on their heads. We talk on the phone wherever we happen to be at the moment. We carry years worth of reading on digital chips in our pockets. We connect wirelessly to a virtual yet frighteningly real world while buying a $5 chai from a Starbucks. This fundamental shift has taken "nomad" to a whole new height. We spend hours a day visiting other places, or speaking with people from far off lands. We may each still posess a physical address, a house number, city, and zip code. But we're hardly ever there any more, and it's often the last place people will go to find us.
But it's not just our friends and family hoping to reach out and touch us. Salesmen, entrepreneurs, job seekers, paying clients, business associates, and long lost loves are all out there too, trying to knock on our door. Now, imagine if everyone of those people came to your home just to say "hi". You'd have a line around the block, and you'd quickly grow tired of answering the door. At some point you'd probably sneak out the back door, and never come back. Screw the cat, he can fend for himself. You never liked that sofa from college anyway. You'll just find a new home, buy some stock at Ikea, upgrade to a dog, and start all over.
This is how I feel with my email accounts. In fact, I've already run away from one email home. I just went back today, to see how it has faired in my absense. Not so well. Since my departure, it has accumulated over 400 email messages in my inbox, with another 850+ in my "Bulk" folder, which automatically catches spam. How many of these emails pertained to business of any interest to me? Who knows, I'm only on message #75.
But I've decided, this is no way to treat your home. This is no way to use the handy tools of free email. So here's what I propose: Everyone needs at least 3 email addresses (and maybe more if your digital lifestyle calls for it). Here's how it works:
- Email #1: Work
- This is your work/school address. Use it to conduct all things work/school related. AND THAT'S ALL. Don't sign up for a thing. Don't attach it to your credit cards. Try to keep it off of "Evite" lists. Keep it professional, and discrete.
- Email #2: Personal
- Here's where you conduct business of the personal nature. Email your friends with it. Contact those lost loves. If you can swing it, keep this off of those "Evite" lists as well. This one should be discrete too, but not at all professional.
- Email #3: Public
- Ok, now you can bring on those Evites. Sign up for online promotions, merchant email lists, frequent flyer mailers, etc. Ask the world to come to this doorstep. This email address should be how the general, unfamiliar public tries to make contact with you.
The point of all of this 2-fold. First and foremost on everybody's mind is of course SPAM. But I don't care how smart our software gets, it'll never block spam until the web itself fundamentally changes away from an universally anonymous network. So give up the dream that one day you won't get spam. Instead, just try your best to keep it in the same place. Second, it'll teach you good discipline of keeping personal and business things separate. My father nagged on me for years about not conducting personal business with my work emails. I've only recently begun to see why that's so important. If you can't see the reasons for yourself, then just trust me and my pops. We know what we're talking about. And if you need at least one reason, here you go: if you move jobs, or graduate from school, then all of those personal correspondences are lost forever. Perhaps you don't care, but if you're anything like me, you enjoy going back and reading emails from months ago. Or maybe you'll eventually need that lost love's email.
One important thing is to not neglect your Public email address completely. You won't need to check it daily or anything, but once every week or two will help minimize the shock and time spent cleaning it out each time you log in. For every 100 junk mailings you'll get, you may also get something of importance: a note from your credit card that you've overdrawn your account, for example.
I think this system should be taught to our school children. The earlier the age the better. Pop a pacifier in their mouths, open up a trust fund, and secure them two email addresses, personal and public. I mean come on, give them at least a few care-free toddler years before teaching them the meaning of the word "work".