I am falling so far behind on my discussions and responses

good luck! i have the same problem i have 3 small kids and a house to take care of and my email fills up fast. my oldest is in school but i still have my 2 year old and 5 month old. when they go down for there nap i pick up some so it will stay that way for a bit. i had a little over 100 in my box and just couldn't get the number down by the time i did one there would be 3 more in there so once a week i go through them and delete some. i have to or i would have hundreds in there right now. i just hope no one gets upset with me for it but i know i could never catch up with that many.

Well I can tell you what has worked for me. When I get up in the morning before everyone else. I go through my emails and place them into a couple of different folders that I have set up in my inbox. They are labeled new discussions to respond to, discussions that need some thought and discussions to maybe answer. I wake up to some where between 75 to 120 emails. So quite a lot, but it gives me a wides range of topics to choose from. The reason that I do this, is because then when I have free time throughout the day I don't have to search through pages and pages of discussions in the link "discussions my friends started", I now have quality discussions at my finger tips. If I get to the discussions and they have many responses, I skip over them until I have more time to devote to reading all the responses, and move to another one that has less responses. This has worked pretty well for me, it's not to bad to read through them all in the morning, takes about an hour or so. I do find that if I get to far behind on those emails I just delete them and move on to the next day. Don't worry if you don't respond to everyone, everyday. Do what you can, tomorrow you will have plenty more to choose from, I promise. Most members understand that you have a life and you don't live on the site 24/7. For those that don't you didn't want them in your friends list anyways. As always this is just my 2 cents worth! :)

Give yourself a break, your friends should understand you have a life beside Mylot. Just do what you can, if your friends don't undestand you should delete them.

If it is from a friend that seldom responds to your messages , then I would delete them from your email. Maybe you could catch up by answering those emails from your BEST friends only. Those would be friends that you know will respond to your topics. I know for me, that is about 30% of all my friends that are regular posters.

This isn't an obligation, it is a past time. Delete all the mylot related mail in your inbox and start fresh. If you are stressed from being here, then get out! Maybe turn off the computer for a few days or so. Don't let technology rule you.

I'm happy to swap!! I currently have over 250 emails sitting waiting to be looked at that are in my mylot folder ... *sighs* I'm getting there but it's a slow process. The best advice that I take myself is that mylot is a "hobby" - there is no need to get upset over something so small. It's not the end of the world if you don't reply to everyones conversations. I personally go through the answers to my discussions first - as you can do that from the mylot site and they are all in one place. Then you can delete all the emails that are responses to that. Also - as much as I'd love to reply to all my friends conversations, I have to skip over the ones that don't apply to me. Otherwise i'd be online 24 hours a day trying to catch up. You could always turn off your emails - which i see someone else has suggested ... hope you feel unstressed about this all soon!

Do not get overwelmed my dear. Only do what you can do. I understand completely. As your numbers grow, it is harder and harder to the point it is impossible. So, enjoy and do the best you can.

Linda just take it easy I had 600 when I came back online after a week and I just did them as I could. The responses to yours are probably me lol as I did respond to a lot of yours just take your Time and do not panic

Life goes on, as we as everyday people have things to do...like you stated. I wouldn't worrie about it. People understand and you will eventually find the time to catch up with things. Dont stress out! I would turn the notify off, that way you are not so over whelmed with e-mails.

I would suggest you either turn off the notify on some or all of your friends or make good use of that delete button on your emails! Take care of your stuff first and think of Mylot as something fun for yourself. You shouldn't feel like you have to answer each and every discussion. You especially shouldn't be feeling upset to the point of wanting to cry! We all have lives too and we all understand! No one is going to get mad at you for not responding to each and every one of their discussions! :)

First thing to do is relax. Real life happens, whether we like it or not and the computer world has to accpet that. It won't help you to panic or stress out over it. I would suggest prioritizing things a bit. When you go to respond to a friend's discussion you don't need to rate all those who posted. That is optional, it's nice but it's not demanded of you. So don't worry if you don't rate each person's post. Worry about the discussion in general. Now when it's a response to your discussion yes rate them but you don't have to respond to each and everyone. Just pick the ones were you can make a good comment to, either adding to what they said or correcting them, or saying how you disagree whatever but you don't have to respond to each and every response. That will save you a great deal of time. That should help you with the overload. Remember just do what you can and don't worry about the rest.

Well catching up does take time and you don't have to worry about not doing it quickly. Do it at your own pace because nobody is holding you responsible. You need enjoy your experience at myLot rather than making it a chore:) I was a away from the weekend and when I got back I had atleast a 100 mails to get back to and also check responses on my discussions. I sat down yesterday for atleast 3 hours straight and cleared everything. Sometimes we don't respond to all of our friends' discussions right, so you can just move on. Maybe you should keep one day for just reading and rating responses.

Please don't get distressed about it. We don't get paid enough for that. I will tell you my plan of organisation, however, you may find others on mY Lot are better. 1. Check my emails. Save the discussions started from friends. 2. Read responses to my discussions. 3. Go into My Lot, and reply to "some" responses. You can't reply to them all.Rate them all, as that is quick. 4. If you feel any discussions you started are finished, then choose a best response. 5. Begin responding to some of your friends discussions, only the ones you feel comfortable with.Delete the rest from your inbox. 5. Respond to any other discussions. 6. At any stage during this process, begin a discussion if you can think of a topic. Good Luck.

You can only do your best. Just take it slow. You don't have to respond to each one. Wade through the ones you can. We all know at times we can't get to it, because of things going on in our life. You do very well, and I am sure people will understand.

linda, i don't think you have to worry so much... i also face the same problem and i don't have enough time to rate and response to every single person that reply to my discussions... but what i can do is i just try my best and try to response to as many as i can... that's all we can do, isn't it??? we can't do anything more than that as we are only human with limitations and i have to work and do household chores as well at the same time...

for stop email in ur inbox makes notify off first . and when u get lots of response than just try to thanks them so atleast they come to know that u have read the response .

I understand your problem, as I too get caught in rating each and everyone. It takes time due to my slow connection. So now I rate only in first page and the page where my response lies. But we must rate all responses in our own discussions, in my opinion. Now about getting notifications, I don't face so much problem as you do. My email client filters them in categories and when I go there, I instantly find how many responses I've got, which of my friend has started how many discussions, how many messages did I get, and so on. So when I have to respond, I have the option to reply to selected ones of the topics from the same person. And you're not forced to respond everyone instantaneously, they can wait. Responding everyone affects the quality of post too.

LOL - I had this same thing happen last week. All I did was pick one or 2 discussions from each friend and delete the rest - you won't get anyplace if you get flustered. I didn't worry about the responses to my discussions figured I could catch those anytime and didn't worry about commenting on any responses unless they really yelled "me me me". That way I was able to get some done and still able to keep up with the new discussions that came in.

i just keep the email alerts in my email box and go through what i can every day. Im still way behind but i figured even if they have picked a best response im still going to answer. There are people that i dont know if they are behind or new here, that just answered a discussion that i posted when i first joined like 3 weeks ago and picked a best response already. I figured its my friends, we are both making out by no matter when i answer or they answer mine. LOL i am way behind too i think i got emails from last week still that i havent touched.

I have felt the same way too. I don't always have time to answer everyone either, dinner, house cleaning, my 3 year old, part-time working...I understand, I am going to turn off my alerts for when some asks a question I think!