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Research suggests:  clicking things is, on balance, good for you. Sample size: everyone.
Research suggests:  the 3pm slump responds best to one (1) game of Snake.
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Research suggests:  productivity is, technically, a social construct.
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n = ∞

JustResearching / Tools / Work Life

How Many Emails Have I Sent?

A rough lifetime estimate of your career email output, and the hours spent producing it.

150
1200
130
50,000

emails sent in your career so far

10,000per year
833per month
14.9 weeksspent writing them
62.5work weeks on email

Six figures incoming. Your sent folder is practically a novel.

This tool estimates the total number of emails you have sent over your working career, based on how long you have been working and your average daily email volume.

It also estimates how many hours you have spent writing them. The average office worker sends around 40 emails per day. At three minutes each, that is two hours a day, every working day. Over a career, the numbers get interesting quickly.

How we work it out

We assume 250 working days per year (50 weeks at 5 days), multiply by your daily send rate for the total, then multiply total emails by your minutes-per-email estimate to get the time figure. All numbers are estimates based on averages.

Questions

What counts as sending an email?

Any email you composed and sent, including replies and forwards. Quick one-line replies pull the average down; detailed responses push it up. Adjust the minutes-per-email slider to match your style.

What is a typical emails-per-day figure?

Studies typically put average office worker send rates between 30 and 50 emails per day. Customer-facing and management roles often send more; technical or creative roles often send fewer.

Take a break from the inbox.