Emptying your inbox … the polite way

Merlin Mann’s post about Lawrence Lessig’s Wired article struck a chord. Lessig proposes a polite way to clear your inbox and start afresh (amongst several other useful tips). He described this process as being equivalent to declaring email bankruptcy. The process is:

1. Collect the email addresses of everyone you haven’t replied to. Paste them into the BCC field of a new message you’ll send to yourself.
2. Write a polite note explaining your predicament. Apologize profusely Lessig managed five mea culpas in as many paragraphs and promise to keep up with your email in the future. Try to sound credible.
3. Ask for a resend of anything particularly pressing, and offer to give such messages special attention.

I don’t think I am quite at this stage, but it may be a useful backstop should I suddenly find my inbox growing out of control.