Email used to be a delightful part of life: It made your job easier, it connected you to employees, it lessened the necessity of a face-to-face office meeting. Boy, have things changed. Now email is often considered a pain: Interrupting your train of thought, making it difficult for you to communicate with people when you need to and preventing you from getting the most productivity from your workers.

This week, we report on an article in ComputerWorld.com about moving on, ending your dependence on email and taking advantage of the new social networking tools right in front of you. All of them provide more tailored services for you, allowing you to get rid of junk email and targeting your thoughts to specific people.

There is nothing wrong with using Twitter for direct communications or Facebook to make your case and get the feedback you need from your workers. IM works too, as does a telephone call. There are multiple ways to communicate these days. Take a good look and select those that meet your needs. Don't store away email with mothballs--just change the way you use it. - Judi