My friend Andy L suggested I sent out a message suggesting more or less the email below.

I didn’t receive a single negative response. In fact, I got positive responses. It feels like partial liberation from the bits I missed!

From: [Me]
Sent: 18 January 2011 09:24
To: [An Extended Team]
Subject: Email advice

All,

I’ve now deleted around 4000 emails.  I’ve read others.  I’ve even actioned a few more.  But I’m about to copy 600 emails into a folder marked ‘should probably read’ and mostly they are from you.  It would take me an awful long time to work my way through these, so…

Could I possibly ask, if there is an email in there containing info that you think is particularly important, could you either tell me to go find it, resend it, or verbally update me over a coffee (which I’m happy to buy!)? This will let me prioritise issues the issues you think are most important while giving me time to do the work for meetings and events in the diary, which I’d otherwise have to cancel/decline!

Thanks lots for your help!!!

There is so much going on at work and it wouldn’t be at all appropriate for me to blog details, so I’ll simply tell you about the post-stroke changes/observations.

It takes me longer to walk to places, like between meetings and to the colour printer which is ages away.  Correction: it can take me the same amount of time, but if I keep powering around my head gets lighter and I feel like I’ve taken a backward leap. So I have to constantly remind myself it’s not a race and I need to walk at a slower pace. Which is oddly frustrating, especially as I keep forgetting!

I answer a lot of ‘how are you doing today?‘ questions, and I have to think ‘how am i?‘ because I’ve not considered it much until someone asks (again). Luckily my team is well over this!  But people always apologise for asking and I really don’t mind: it would be worse if they didn’t care at all!

I’m less inclined to get emotionally involved in what’s going on (or what people think) too: I’m advised by everyone else who’s had a bout of leave that this wears off very quickly, but I’m enjoying it, because I think it makes everything easier for me and probably for everyone else too.  Passion is good, but holding things with a loose grip can also an empowering thing.

So, anyway, enough about me, how are you today?