Email is both the most useful tool I have for communicating and the most problematic.

It’s useful because it’s inexpensive to send and receive, integrated with many of my other communication and information tools (websites, phone texting, calendar and contacts), and able to work with multiple media, from text to images to video to links.

Best of all, it’s asynchronous: I can send you a message when I think of something, without worrying about interrupting you, and you can respond when it’s convenient. We don’t have to schedule the communication or stop what we’re doing to interact.

Except… email often is an interruption, even a disruption. Continue reading →