‘Email is a zombie that keeps rising from the dead’: the endless pursuit of Inbox Zero

As emails loom omnipresent in our connected lives, is the quest for an empty inbox a noble pursuit or an unwinnable war?

Last week, I asked my Twitter followers about their email inboxes.

Author Mohammed Massoud Morsi likened his to a Kalashnikov on semi-automatic...Nudge, Nudge, Nudge. Nudge. Nudge, Nudge." Human rights lawyer Diana Sayed replied that hers functions as a to-do list that is emptied on the regular. And when editor Caitlin Chang revealed that her inbox is sitting at over 1,000 and counting (she says she only ever reads the ones at the top, as they're probably the most important), someone's response to her was, I threw up a little in my mouth".