Engaging with e-mail/E-mailing strategy

When I open my email account, the first thing I do is look for new emails which are presented in bold lettering. From that point, I proceed to look at who is sending the email and what the subject is. Depending upon that, I choose which to open first based upon what I believe is the most important or most intriguing to me. Messages from the University or other mass emails I tend to open then quickly look over to see if I need to place my attention to what they are sharing and read the first sentence. If I decide it is not important or relevant, I will either leave it to deal with later or immediately delete it from my inbox. As far as replying to emails, I try to reply as quickly as possible if the request in the email is a simple one, such as "Will you have lunch with me at noon today?" It takes less than a minute to send a response of "yes" or "no." Emails necessitating a longer response or an attachment I will generally leave for when I have more time to actually structure the email correctly and do what they are asking of me. E-mail has recently become much more important to me. Before college, I would check my Charter.net email account maybe once a week; here at Michigan I check my umich.edu at least twice a day in worry that I will miss an important message.

My process of e-mail checking and replying is common I believe. Of course new emails will be the first thing everyone checks because is that not why they are checking their account? Also, I highly doubt that people would fully read an e-mail they feel is not relevant or important to them. Nor would they reply to something not needing a reply to at a time they are doing other things. My compulsiveness to check the emails is not necessarily so common as some people do not place such an emphasis on keeping in touch or informed. Additionally, in my opinion, email is one of the simpler, more straight-forward technical devices we have. There are not too many additions or side options to it like there are in other services or products. Therefore, I can not see how someone else's strategy will differ too much from my own.