Most of my work day is spent trying to avoid work. During one of my anti-work adventures, I stumbled across a necessary task that many of us often avoid more than we avoid work. Yet it’s avoided because few people remember to do it: Cleaning up your e-mail address book.

It’s only rarely that I manually add a name to my e-mail address book. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I actually did that. Normally, and with much convenience, e-mail addresses are added automatically. It works just like adding someone’s phone number to your cell phone by calling them or having them call you; the e-mail program simply remembers your e-mail friends.

In Windows Mail or Outlook Express you configure the automatic-add option by following these steps:

1. Choose ToolsOptions command from the menu.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the Send tab.
3. Put a check mark by the item “Automatically put people I reply to in my Contacts list.”
4. Click OK.

The problem with having your e-mail program automatically remember every dang doodle address you use is that over time a ton of people end up in your address book. For example, during a business trip, I must have corresponded with a half dozen people at this one company. When the job was done, they’re names still lingered in the address book. That was two years ago! Time to clean.

In Windows Vista, e-mail contacts are kept in the Contacts folder, which is found in your main account folder (called the “User Profile” folder in Windows, but the “home” folder everywhere else). To prune a contact, simply delete the contact’s icon in the folder. You may discover that you have dozens, if not hundreds, of them.

In Outlook Express, choose ToolsAddress Book to see your contacts. Delete the unneeded contacts from the Address Book window.

If you’re using Mail on the Mac, then the e-mail addresses are stored in the separate Address Book application. After opening that program, you can peruse and prune contacts; select a contact and press ⌘+delete to remove a contact.

Remember that pruning the address book is simply something to do when you need something to do; it’s not required maintenance. While I’m sure that killing off seldom-used contacts probably makes using the address book more efficient, I’m not claiming it makes things run faster. It does, however, make your e-mail shortcuts more responsive. For example, when I type an address I see fewer of them in the AutoComplete list because I’ve pruned out those people I don’t e-mail any more.

Oh, and pruning the address book gives you something to do when you can’t think of anything else to do with your computer.