I was the third person in my large institute to have been allotted an email ID, when the email services became available in 1992. Before that, while spending six months as a guest scientist at a CNRS lab in France in 1988, I was told politely that the use of their just-introduced email service was restricted to their regular employees only.
In subsequent years, as the use of email spread widely, my own use of it also grew and soon my email address list had hundreds of addresses. The email services turned out to be handy and useful for professionals, academics and businessmen alike, as they could remain in contact and exchange information with people they wanted to. Over the years, it became a habit with me to check my emails the moment I got up in the morning at home.
I retired formally in 2010, but do recall how after each long trip abroad before that, I would rush to my office next morning at about 6 a.m., just to check the contents of my email inbox which would have dozens of unread emails, waiting for my attention. I would dispose each one of them of after a quick reading, or making my comments in response, if required. The whole process took me about two to three hours. But it was desirable because some colleagues would have sought my attention to some points in their emails written to me, when I was away. But after this exercise, I felt updated enough to meet and discuss any urgent matters with my colleagues and staff when they arrived for the day at 10 a.m. Never mind my jet-lag, or lack of sleep, I owed this to a large number of colleagues working with me, because my official email address was not accessible to me outside my institute premises, for security reasons.
