Normally, I'm pretty diligent about keeping up with my steady stream of work and personal emails. I really do try to glance at most of them, even if I don't respond to every single one. (Sorry PR folks.)

But when I was on my recent four-month maternity leave I received literally thousands of messages on my work, personal and Facebook accounts that remained unread or unanswered for several months. Even checking messages on my Blackberry was tough with an infant and a 2-year-old.

Toward the end of my leave, I was feeling so stressed out about this mountain of messages, I considered hiring a babysitter for a few hours (or days) simply so I could plow through the correspondence. Another option, recommended by a colleague: Declare an 'email bankruptcy' and simply delete them all. If something were truly important I would be sure to find out anyhow, my colleague said. I couldn't quite pull the trigger to erase everything unread, so in the end, I took a hybrid approach, taking several hours to skim through some of my accounts, but deleting messages totally unread in some others.

It's not just email I'm having trouble keeping up with. Now I'm considering declaring bankruptcy on my nearly-full DVR and on my huge unread pile of periodicals and books. With such a big pile to 'get through,' entertainment is feeling less like leisure and more like a chore.

It pains me to consider deleting my carefully-curated DVR or tossing my pile of quality literature. (The New Yorker fiction issue!) But the truth is, I don't have the time to enjoy, let alone keep up with, all the correspondence and entertainment I used to. Time that I once spent quietly reading or even vegging-out in front of the TV is now spent building Legos or catching up on sleep. If I don't pare down the DVR or reading pile soon, it will only grow ever-larger.

I'm not alone. 'Our ability to produce media has outstripped our ability to consume it,' the New York Times media columnist David Carr recently wrote in a column called 'The Glut of Shows Unwatched.' He misses the old days when there were far fewer channels and less 'must-see' TV, recordable and watchable at any time. 'Television, which was once the brain-dead part of the day, had become one more thing that required time, attention and taste,' he adds

So in the realization that my priorities have changed and I can't keep up with everything, maybe it's time to simply press Delete and make room for new opportunities ahead.

Any of you declare an email bankruptcy, tossing out unread messages? What about a DVR or reading-pile bankruptcy? How do you keep up with the inundation of messages and entertainment options?

Rachel Emma Silverman

• diligent [´dilidʒənt] a.勤奋的 (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• respond [ri´spɔnd] v.回答；响应；有反应 (初中英语单词)
• infant [´infənt] n.&a.婴(幼)儿 (初中英语单词)
• entertainment [,entə´teinmənt] n.招(款)待；联欢会 (初中英语单词)
• literature [´litərətʃə] n.文学；文献；著作 (初中英语单词)
• reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
• ability [ə´biliti] n.(办事)能力；才干 (初中英语单词)
• consume [kən´sju:m] v.毁灭；浪费；憔悴 (初中英语单词)
• column [´kɔləm] n.柱；柱状物；纵队 (初中英语单词)
• realization [,riəlai´zeiʃən] n.实现；认识 (初中英语单词)
• literally [´litərəli] ad.逐字地；实际上 (高中英语单词)
• correspondence [,kɔri´spɔndəns] n.通信；符合；相当 (高中英语单词)
• leisure [´leʒə] n.空闲；悠闲；安定 (高中英语单词)
• fiction [´fikʃən] n.小说；虚构；谎言 (高中英语单词)
• blackberry [´blækbəri] n.黑莓 (英语四级单词)
• colleague [´kɔli:g] n.同事，同僚 (英语四级单词)
• totally [´təutəli] ad.统统，完全 (英语四级单词)
• considering [kən´sidəriŋ] prep.就...而论 (英语四级单词)
• bankruptcy [´bæŋkrʌptsi] n.破产 (英语四级单词)
• normally [´nɔ:məli] ad.正常情况下；通常 (英语六级单词)
• delete [di´li:t] vt.删去，擦掉 (英语六级单词)
• trigger [´trigə] n.扳机 vt.触发，启动 (英语六级单词)
• hybrid [´haibrid] n.杂种；混合物 (英语六级单词)
• taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)