the interruption of email. And an immediate response is very impressive to many people -- they think it means you're right on top of your
work. If you prefer to read every message as soon as you notice it, go
for it. You'll find that more and more of your work gets done via the
mail system rather than the phone.
Email is full of useful features that, in many cases, didn't exist before.
As with paper memos, you can carbon copy (cc) or blind carbon copy
(bcc) your notes to anyone on your mail network. You can attach return
receipts to your notes so that you'll know when your email has been
opened. You can schedule tickler messages months ahead of time. You
can flag your messages as "urgent"; in many cases, these notes will
appear immediately on the reader's screen. And, on some systems, you
can set up a "bozo filter" or "kill file" that automatically screens out
email from people whose messages you deem unworthy of reading. All
these features vary from system to system.