Everyone knows that just about the only way to get an immediate clean and fresh restart in the world of credit and finances is bankruptcy. What happens, however, if you have an e-mail debt? Thousands upon thousands of e-mails just piled on top of each other. The truth is you’re never going to answer any of them, so you just let them pile up higher and higher until you’re buried in e-mails you’re doing nothing with, paralyzed by your own inability to cope with how far behind you are.

There is hope, and Lawrence Lessig is offering it. E-mail bankruptcy in 3 easy steps.

1) Collect the email addresses of everyone you haven’t replied to. Paste them into the BCC field of a new message you’ll send to yourself.

2) Write a polite note explaining your predicament. Apologize profusely – Lessig managed five mea culpas in as many paragraphs – and promise to keep up with your email in the future. Try to sound credible.

3) Ask for a resend of anything particularly pressing, and offer to give such messages special attention.

Sounds like a good plan. I guess I’m just too “low volume” to need it, though. I’m pretty much on top of my e-mail and chances are if you e-mail me and don’t get an answer it’s either because I’m working on your e-mail or what it asks, or I’m intentionally ignoring you for more important tasks that require my attention. I’m not very complex that way.

What about you? Would a plan like this help you get a hold on your mounting inbox, or are you pretty anal retentive about managing it down to zero?

Wired Magazine via 43 Folders

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