Numerous reports into the life of the average British office worker have shown that people in this country work harder than anyone outside of a Bolivian salt mine and plough through, on average, 237 e-mails per day. Actually I might not have the details quite right there, but I'm far too busy answering e-mails and digging salt to track down the relevant reports. Anyway, I'm sure you get the gist.

So, what can you do about it? Quite a lot, as it happens. One of the more drastic options is to pull the Ethernet cable out of the back of your PC. You'd be amazed how much real work you can get through without the annoying distractions of other people's pointless status reports, meeting minutes, requests for input and 'funny' jokes. Trouble is, the Network Police will turn up pretty quickly and politely persuade you to plug the cable back in.

So, here's a cunning plan: answer your e-mails once a day. That's it. Doesn't sound cunning, does it? But it works. Here's how (he said, sounding like an advert for a pyramid selling scam). To start with, here's another quote that I can't be bothered to source: "A common symptom of people approaching a nervous breakdown is that they are convinced beyond doubt that the work they are doing is of the utmost importance."

Similarly, people who are snowed under with e-mails tend to treat every incoming mail as important. Believe me, if something's important, nobody's going to use e-mail to tell you about it. Think about this little scenario:

Nuclear power station worker: "The cooling rods have failed - the reactor's going critical!"
Supervisor: "Sh*t! We'd better e-mail the emergency services!"

Unlikely, isn't it? Whatever you're doing, if it's really important you'll get a phone call or several serious-looking people standing at your desk in lead-lined suits. If the news comes by e-mail, then by definition it's not urgent.

Now, the next point. Tidy people like to keep their inbox 'clean', with no unread messages. Sounds good, doesn't it? But it's not. If you keep your inbox tidy by responding immediately whenever an e-mail arrives, what does that mean? Think about it... think about it... any idea?

It means that you've given someone the opportunity to send you another e-mail. As soon as they get your reply, they'll be knocking out another one of their own. Within the hour, your inbox will be a mess again. Every time you click 'send' you're inviting people to make work for you. And, because they haven't read this editorial, they will do just that.

So try this approach. Keep your mail client closed all day except for a brief period in the early afternoon, after lunch. At that point, open Outlook or whatever else you use, delete anything with 'FYI' or 'comments please' in the subject line, as well as all the usual spam. Delete anything that looks like it might involve work that's outside your core job description. Reply briefly and succinctly to anything else, and ask people to phone you if they have any questions. Spend no more than half an hour doing this, then go back to doing proper work. Repeat each day.

Remember: 99 percent of e-mails are sent to protect the sender, not to inform the recipient. Whoops, there's another vague, unattributed quote. Oh well. Here endeth the lesson. Phone me if you have any questions.