The arrival of email has opened up a new communication channel that can be extremely efficient. Actually sometimes too efficient. It can take 30 seconds to write an email that means hours of work on the receiving side. This, together with the sheer volume of work-related emails that scientists tend to receive, can provoke a lot of stress.

Scientists (like myself) often struggle to organize themselves properly. It is then very tempting to use your inbox as a to-do list. The messages in your inbox are often connected to tasks, and you can simply leave them in the inbox until you have dealt with them. Most of my colleagues work this way.