Illustration: Thinkstock

It's time to talk about your email inbox. You've got, what, 27 unread messages and 38 notes flagged for follow up? And every two minutes there's another disruption, from office-wide announcements about procedures for booking the conference room on a floor you've never even visited to spammy emails from that site where you once bought shoes that were half a size too small and not nearly as cute as they looked in the photo.

While it's easy to blame your junior colleague and her emoticon riddled meeting reminders or your boss whose nickname might as well be "Looping in an innocent bystander," we might have more control over the problem than we think. That's because, as entrepreneur and TED curator Chris Anderson argues in this insightful Washington Post op ed, "to fix a communal problem, a community needs to come together and agree to new rules." So he, along with his colleague Jane Wulf, opened the question up to the commons and created this amazing email charter with their help.

Full of gems like "respect recipients' time" and "ending a note with 'No need to respond' or NNTR is a wonderful act of generosity,'" their 10 commandments of email are actionable steps anyone can take to make her inbox—and the inbox of anyone else around her—more manageable.

"How to stop email overload? Think before you hit send" (Washington Post)
Email Charter

Keep Reading
To: Oprah.com readers, Subject: Email etiquette
How to send a smarter message
The 30 day email detox

Here are some things I know how to draw: Stick figures, the sun, clouds, flowers, boxy houses, boxy cars and actual boxes. Trust me, these skills are very impressive to a three-year-old cousin who's still working on the motor skills required to hold a pencil. Not so much when it comes to a Pictionary team of competitive, adult friends who have 45 seconds to use those clues to guess Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version). Enough evenings like that and a person might bolt for the nearest exit at the mere mention of Pictionary.

So I was surprised to find myself giggling at my desk this morning as I sketched "Sleep with the fishes johnny," a prompt from a complete stranger on the site Teledraw. Like Pictionary—or Telephone, from which it borrows part of its name—the game starts with a phrase provided by one player that is then drawn by another. But here's the twist: instead of an angry mob relying on my ability to accurately sketch a Godfather quote, my doodle was turned over to a third player who described what he saw ("man on flotation device while goldfish wait to devour him") that then became the clue for another player to interpret. And so on. Once you've submitted your work, you can trace the chain back to its source or forward until people are stumped by it.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Courtesy of Men of the Stacks

* A group of rather studly male librarians (like Mario, left) has assembled a pinup calendar to bust stereotypes about their profession. (The Men of the Stacks; mildly NSFW)

*In case that doesn't satisfy your Thursday handsome man craving, perhaps you would be interested in this gallery of George Clooney and Ryan Gosling goofing off on the red carpet? (BuzzFeed)

* Did you watch last night's baseball insanity? Bill Simmons, a.k.a. The Sports Guy kept a running diary while watching his beloved Boston Red Sox epically lose to the Baltimore Orioles. (Grantland)

* "The problem was, as with most things in my life, I turned something that should have been a sweet memory into yet another self-generated humiliation."—Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and creator of Freaks and Geeks, remembers his first kiss in the delightful essay, "A Super-Classy Gentleman’s Guide to Being a Classy Fellow." (Rookie)

"I just love doing it the old way. Another reason why I won't put my phone number on my notes is I know people will call me, and I won't get any letters back." — Harold Hackett has sent more than 4,800 messages in bottles over the last 20 years, and the BBC made a sweet and moving video about the warm responses he's received.

If your dream Friday night involves curling up on the sofa with a DVD of The Birds, you're sure to enjoy Hitch, this short, gorgeously animated "recipe book" deconstructing the ingredients that make Alfred Hitchcock's movies so great. But you don't have to love the master of suspense to appreciate the idea behind the video: in any given work of art, "there is no secret ingredient, it's the right combination of various techniques." Whether that means meting out "cooking time" to allow "flavors to develop" or finding the perfect "cold (preferably blonde) dish" to serve alongside something hot, the elements needed for a compelling story are available to everyone. And mixing them together? Well that's a skill anyone can master with proper practice. (Via Brainpickings)

Hitch from Pascal Monaco on Vimeo.

Tell us: What are the key ingredients in your favorite movie?

Keep Reading
7 ways to spark your creativity
How to tell your story
What makes a good writer?

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Illustration: Thinkstock

* A man goes inside the world of women's fashion and finds that for many women, their wardrobe is "a pastime, a passion, a shared language, a form of self-definition and a temporary escape from the opposite sex, all rolled into one deeply satisfying whole." (Intelligent Life)

* Sir Michael Caine shows off some of his British charm and wit in this thoughtful interview: "I don't get the girl; I get the part." (The Talks)

* Can't wait for Parks and Recreation to come back? Maybe the Ron Swanson Test of Manliness will tide you over. (NBC)

* "I'm not a gay Gandhi. But I hope I've shown that the Internet is a powerful tool. You can use it for porn or you can use it for good." — Dan Savage on his It Gets Better Project (O, The Oprah Magazine)

Photo: Albert Watson for RollingStone.com

Here's one of my biggest pet peeves: You're arguing with your friend—or your partner or your mother or your boss—and you get your feelings hurt. When your friend realizes she's gone too far, instead of apologizing, she says, "I was just joking." LOL?

Actually, no. Jokes should not be cheap Groucho Marx glasses you use to disguise heat-of-the-moment insults. Humor, when deployed correctly, doesn't just lighten the mood; It can change the whole tenor of a conversation for the better. Real jokes offer an opportunity to say something you believe in a new way or to see something someone else believes in a new light.

This is something Jon Stewart understands. In an excellent cover story in this week's Rolling Stone, he explains how he and his team keep The Daily Show, which won its ninth Emmy on Sunday, from becoming too preachy, and in the process he also explains why so many of us admire him: "The key is not to contrive it—don't bring the same level of indignation to things you don't feel. As long as you keep it as honest as you can to your own feeling, then you hope it doesn't become a pure parlor trick."

At the risk of sounding overly preachy myself, shouldn't we all aspire to stay as honest as we can to our own feelings whenever we communicate? Stewart doesn't insert levity into a conversation because he doesn't take it seriously, he does it because it's a way to express serious things clearly. Or, as Oprah put it when she interviewed Stewart in 2005, "You say what everybody else is thinking but can't articulate, in a way that makes people laugh. That's a gift."

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Lunch Bag Art

* We thought it was enough just to pack a delicious lunch, but this dad takes it to a whole new level by making his kids' brown bags into works of art. (Lunch Bag Art)

* Want to know what he’s really thinking? This self-portrait of a single guy is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartening, not to mention funny. (The Awl)

* Swiss artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli calls his work—which involves alphabetizing the pasta in alphabet soup and disassembling pine branches and laying each needle out individually—"advanced tidying up." We call it awesome. (Krulwich Wonders)

* “I had what I think we literary types call an epiphany. My father was a fan.”—Novelist John Warner's moving essay about his father is worth reading if you have ever lost a parent or had a hard time grieving. (The Millions)

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: The Pennsylvania State University Library

* Did young Ernest Hemingway give a porcupine a "wack with an ax?" Vanity Fair shares a treasure trove of the writer’s delightful early correspondence with his parents and childhood friends. (Vanity Fair)

* Watch this: Louis C.K.'s affectionate remembrance of George Carlin, the man who inspired him to become a comedian. (The Daily What/NYPL.org, language NSFW)

* For boys who like bikes, the Barbour Steve McQueen collection. (Barbour)

* Need a place to stay in L.A.? Rent Conan O’Brian’s studio for a night (and it’s cheap, too). (Airbnb)

* "Studies have shown that men who can easily lift heavy objects make better listeners." Over at McSweeney's, "Jenna, Take Me Back, I'm Newly Muscular" is good for a laugh. (McSweeney's)

* "But the power people take from others is nothing next to the power that comes with simple self-acceptance, with being comfortable in your (changing) skin. It’s not just Survival of the Fit-ins. There’s room for something new."—Joss Whedon's advice to teenagers starting high school. (Rookie)

1. You probably can say it in 140 characters.

2. If you already know it's going to make you angry, don't click.

3. There's a Tumblr for that.

4. Even though I haven't met all of my Facebook friends, I love that they always remember my birthday.

5. If all else fails, watch Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.

MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON from Dean Fleischer-Camp on Vimeo.